Wim Delvoye
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Wim Delvoye Opening Saturday September 9, 6 - 8 pm September 9 – October 29
Perrotin New York is proud to present an exhibition of metal sculptures created over the past five years by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. !e exhibition is the artist’s eleventh solo in the ci", the sixth one-person show with the gallery and his first singular presentation at Perrotin New York. Wim Delvoye has developed an art that offers a reinterpretation of artworks of the past, while laying down a lucid and amused glance at contemporary socie". He explores art history, Gothic cathedrals and sculptures of the 19th century—from Bosch and Brueghel to Warhol, simultaneously revealing the beau" of daily objects. With a Baroque gesture between homage and irreverence, he appropriates and deforms the motifs that inspire him. “Art is a game we play with serious ma!er.” Kurt Schwi$ers Celebrated for his scandalous Cloaca machines, which scientifically transform the cuisine of the world’s best chefs into manufactured poo, and ta$ooed live pigs that aesthetically flaunt drawings of Disney princesses and fashion logos, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye creates art to fascinate people. A neo-conceptual artist, Delvoye is widely known for contemporary art that cleverly combines philosophical ideas, a fresh use of materials and a love for cra%smanship. Blurring the boundary between the art of the past and the digital realm of current art practice, he makes aerodynamic, mathematically perfect, intricate sculptures that take both art and design to new levels of invention. Continually confronting what already exists with what can exist, Delvoye takes audiences on a virtual journey with his sublime suitcases, car parts, cement trucks and motorcycle tires, while bringing us deeper into his church of thought with a stunning array of twisted Christian crucifixes and digitally deformed Neoclassical sculptures. 2
!e centerpiece of Delvoye’s solo show at Perrotin New York is the sculpture Maserati, which was recently exhibited in his surveys at Montreal’s DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Acquiring the body of a late-1950s’ Maserati 450S racing car, Delvoye had Iranian artisans emboss the aluminum carapace with elaborate Middle Eastern designs, thus creating—as the artist ironically implied in a recent interview in "e Art Newspaper—“a new flying carpet.” Similarly, Delvoye purchased a selection of luxurious Rimowa-brand lu&age and had the Iranian cra%smen embellish the aluminum suitcases with traditional pa$erns and iconic imagery culled from his existing body of work. He recently added a new object to this assortment of assisted ready-mades: an embossed automobile tailpipe, which—within the context of this show—comically seems as though it might have fallen off the car. Referencing another mode of travel, Delvoye’s Twisted Tires series features a Dunlop Geomax 100/90-19 57M motorcycle tire 3
Maserati 2012 Embossed aluminum 80 × 450 × 180 cm 31 1/2 × 177 3/16 × 78 7/8 in
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that’s been scanned and warped into a varie" of digitally derived Möbius-rings. Completely cast in stainless steel, each superbly sculpted tire is patinated black, while the wheel is brightly polished to smartly lend the artist’s simulations a form of reali". Taking the concept of twisting objects in a different direction, Delvoye’s Foundry Works include a number of Rorschach sculptures that use sensuous Neoclassical figurines as the point of departure for a series of bizarre bronzes that play'lly distort the originals, while his Dual Möbius Quad Corpus sculpture and Twisted Jesus pieces elevate the idea of idolatry to a new, and beauti'lly perverse, end. Finally, the newest work in the show beckons back to the core of Delvoye’s conceptually complex oeuvre, the Gothic Works. Stretching to nearly 12-feet high, his sculpture Twisted Cement Truck presents a torqued Mercedes cement truck dynamically coming and going as it visually spirals in space. Designed and fabricated by a team of workers over the course of a year, the power'l piece consists of hundreds of lacy sections of laser-cut stainless steel that have been bolted and welded together to construct a fascinating work of art. Paul Laster July 2017
Born in 1965, Delvoye has had nearly 100 solo gallery and museum exhibitions since 1986, including New York’s New Museum, !e Power Plant in Toronto, Venice’s Pe&y Gu&enheim Collection, Australia’s Museum of Old and New Art, Centre Pompidou and Musée du Louvre in Paris, Moscow’s Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, !e Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Center in Azerbaijan. His work has been featured in such significant group shows as the Venice Biennial, Documenta IX, Sydney Biennial, Lyon Biennial and Shanghai Biennial and is represented in major public collections worldwide. A current retrospective of his art is on view at the Museum Tinguely in Basel through January 1, 2018.
Pegasus & Perseus Rorschach 2016 Patinated bronze 61 × 61 × 78 cm 24 1/16 × 24 1/16 × 30 11/16 in
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Farhad Moshiri S N OW FO R EST
OPE N I N G SATU R DAY N OVE M B E R 4, 6 - 8 P M E X H I B ITI ON N OVE M B E R 4 – D EC E M B E R 23 WE D N ES DAY - S U N DAY, 10 AM - 6 P M
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Farhad Moshiri Snow Forest Opening Saturday November 4, 6 - 8 pm November 4 – December 23 “I think part of the fascination I have with the art making process is that you don’t know where you are going, so it’s probably best to say that I am responding to the unknown, looking for the undiscovered.” 1 Farhad Moshiri Perrotin New York is pleased to present “Snow Forest”, the fi%h solo exhibition at the gallery by Farhad Moshiri, internationally renowned for his innovative approach in the Neo-Pop s"le. !e new body of works of the Iranian artist comes from old photographs of snowy trees shot by the artist several years ago in a forest in Iran. Moshiri is an ardent collector: he gathers all kinds of found forms and images, arranged according to shared iconographic principles. His new series deals with a certain frictional relationship with abstraction and color. Embroidered with beads and pearls, these images become contrasted landscapes, barely recognizable. !ey can evoke Mondrian’s Silver Tree from the 1910s, the nature in black and white paving the way to abstraction. Incorporating elements such as embroidery, crystals and beads, the photographs become highly textured and sculptural. Se$ing up a new vocabulary in Moshiri’s work, “Snow Forest” articulates a different approach of ornamentation and imagery. “Equally at ease with so-called high-brow and low-brow references, including Pop art, conceptual art, comics, advertising, classic portraiture, and religious iconography, Moshiri’s composite language is primarily a reflection of the different cultures that defined his growth as a human being and as an artist—a conflict that is still very much present today in contemporary Iran’s socie$, where Moshiri resides, and where the pillars that supported a secular civilization are subjected to daily reviews, questions and contaminations dictated by the inevitable progress of modern life. "is factor, coupled with Moshiri’s a!endance of the California Institute of Arts in the mid-1980s, where he first came into contact with other major unorthodox reali$ makers like Michael Asher, John Baldessarri and Don Buchla, and the opportuni$ he had over 8
Snow Forest 2016 Hand embroidered beads on canvas 176 × 170 cm 69 5/16 × 66 15/16 in
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the past decade to witness the quick evolution of Dubai into the global, high-rise ci$ it is today on the other side of the Persian Gulf, explains why Moshiri’s artistic strategy relies almost entirely on his observation and collection of these extremes and their amalgamation into a larger scenario he constructed himself.” 2 Farhad Moshiri was born in 1963 in Shiraz, Iran. A%er twelve years in Los Angeles, where he completed his training at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1980s, Moshiri now lives and works between Tehran and Paris. He has developed a remarkable and hybrid visual language that draws at once from popular Iranian and Western cultures. His work has been exhibited internationally since 1989. “Go West”, the first retrospective in the US of Farhad Moshiri, will be held at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg from October 13, 2017 to January 14, 2018. Encompassing several bodies of work created over decades, this mid-career survey will focus on Moshiri’s varied subject ma$er, de% use of language, and wide-ranging materials and methods. Curated by José Carlos Diaz, chief curator of !e Warhol Museum, the exhibition will bring together paintings and sculptures that have never been displayed together, many of which are traveling to the US for the first time. The survey is accompanied by a catalog which includes essays by contemporary art history scholars, Dr. Shiva Balaghi and Mitra M. Abbaspour, and an interview with the artist by José Carlos Diaz, The Warhol’s chief curator.
Snow Forest 2016 Hand embroidered beads on canvas 180 × 120 cm 70 7/8 × 47 1/4 in
1. Farhad Moshiri in conversation with Nima Sagharchi, September 2014 in “Farhad Moshiri”, Skira, 2016 2. Michele Robecchi, 2014
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Gabriel Rico O N E LAW FO R TH E LI O N & OX I S O P P R ES S I O N
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Gabriel Rico One Law for The Lion & Ox is Oppression Opening Saturday November 4, 6 - 8 pm November 4 – December 23 Perrotin is proud to present “One Law for !e Lion & Ox is Oppression,” Gabriel Rico’s debut exhibition in New York and first solo show with the gallery. “Art remains at the service of the human even as it tries to undo previous definitions of humanism to arrive at a ‘becoming’ that is in affini$ with animals.” Ron Boglio With a post-Surrealist/Arte Povera approach, artist Gabriel Rico’s latest body of work mines a range of materials, from taxidermy animals to neon shapes and found natural objects, that together create environments addressing the relationship between nature, architecture and the future ruins of civilization. Looking at the behaviors and survival techniques of animals, like the golden pheasant, he creates se$ings that reveal complexities of the current human condition. !e juxtaposition of diverse life forms in'ses the objects with a humor and irony, reflective of the common stru&le to a$ain equilibrium amidst the everyday challenges of life. !e title of the exhibition derives from the final line of William Blake’s visionary text, "e Marriage of Heaven and Hell.1 “One law for the lion and ox is oppression,” can be considered as the confinement of energy by the law of reason that in return would destroy energy, and therefore existence. Blake insists there is no single law, no moral absolute, by which man is governed, which brings into question whether animals reveal something about culture and what it means to be human.
Naturaleza muerta 2016 Wood, pheasant skin, plastic fruits, neon, rope 115 × 50 × 50 cm 45 1/4 × 19 11/16 × 19 11/16 in
Looking back to a time when man was believed to be the master of nature, Rico investigates historical technologies seen during the peak of the Age of Reason. He distills geometric shapes that correspond to this period when the applied life sciences began to rely on mathematics to quantize nature in order to understand, dominate, and ultimately a$empt to conquer it. 14
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!rough works such as Venado, one can see Rico taking these failed romantic notions about man conquering nature to a play'l, tragic, and poetic result. !e familiar shape of the Modernist square is here composed of a fine balance of objects that reveals a deeper sense of intention: the projective geometry of neon, fragments of a taxidermy deer hoof, a handmade vintage knife (partially composed of deer bone), a brass angle, and two devalued Mexican coins. Together, they bring to light the question of whether Moderni" missed the third world. Playing with the ideas of balance, connection and uncertain", Rico’s work also reveals a chance meeting of sculptural objects related to “La Danza del Venado (!e Deer Dance),” a native Yaqui Dance from the northern Mexican state of Sonora, where dancers reenact a dramatic deer hunt to honor the natural world. “!e Deer Dance” has no European influence and has remained unchanged for centuries. !e inherent ritual, primal, and spiritual qualities recall the cycle of life, in a way similar to how Blake’s poem recalls his perception of good and evil. Rico translates the diametrically opposed energies between the hunter and the deer, or the lion and the ox, into new forms that aspire to a harmonious relationship between humans and our natural environment. Julio Cesar Morales
Curator at the Arizona State Universi" Art Museum. July 2017
!is Summer, a personal exhibition of Gabriel Rico, within the residency program “PROXIMIDAD,” is held at !e Power Station in Dallas, Texas, through October 31, 2017. In October, he will be part of the exhibition “Private Choice,” in a Haussmannian apartment in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, during FIAC. Past exhibitions by Rico include MAZ Zapopan Art Museum, Zapopan, Mexico; Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France; CEART Centro de arte Tomaz y Valiente, Madrid, Spain; 8th Gyeon&i International Ceramic Biennial, Korea Ceramic Foundation, Seoul, Korea and Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy and most recently his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Arizona State Universi" Art Museum. He has received awards by !e National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) Mexico; !e Ministry of Culture of Colombia, Bogota, Colombia; Bursary for Artists at !e Ténot Foundation, France and Prince Claus Foundation, Amsterdam, !e Netherlands. His work is in the collections of Centro de Arte Tomas & Valiente/Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Artist Village, WARP contemporary art platform, St. Nikklass, Belgium; Korean Ceramic Foundation (KOCEF) Seoul, Korea and ArtNexus Foundation, Bogota, Colombia.
AB Initio 2016 Brass, neon, branch, tape measure, deer hoof ø 75 cm ø 29 1/2 in
1. Blake, William, edited with an introduction and commentary by Michael Phillips. "e Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2011
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Chen Fei F I N E ART
OPE N I N G TH U R S DAY S E PTE M B E R 7, 4 - 9 P M E X H I B ITI ON S E PTE M B E R 7 – O CTO B E R 7 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M
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Chen Fei Fine Art Opening Thursday September 7, 4 - 9 pm September 7 – October 7 Perrotin Paris proudly presents Chen Fei’s “Fine Art”. Chen Fei’s first solo show in Paris follows 2014’s “Flesh and Me” at Perrotin Hong Kong. Born in 1983 in Shanxi province, Chen Fei positions himself as an outsider. Since studying at the Beijing Film Academy, he has cultivated a persona more at home with Beijing’s youth subcultures, the ta$oo parlors and punk music scene, than the so-called fine art world. His signature pop s"le reflects this, blending the slick lines and surfaces of manga cartoons to depict the psycho-sexual states of the Beijing demimonde. Flat, immediate images composed of cartoon outlines and color-fill eschew painterly affectation. What counts is not how the painting is painted but the images themselves, clean-lined depictions of a dirty real world. Even so, Chen Fei does not ignore art history but sardonically exploits it, raiding the canon, marking its otherness. Scavengers (2010), based on John Evere$ Millais’s iconic Pre-Raphaelite painting Ophelia (1851-2), shows a young woman wading in a forest pond, fishing out Ophelia/Chen Fei’s body (with écorché gut). Xiao Wu Ji (2012), lightly references Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), with a bored shop assistant at an electronics stand. In his new paintings, however, Chen Fei’s previously incidental investigations into Western and Eastern art history and practice are developed into a central theme. !e outsider has come inside. Cartoons derive from a process used to transpose designs from one surface to another (most famously as employed by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel). Now it is principally used for animated films, Chen Fei’s focus as a student. A film is essentially a kinetic series of still pictures forming a narrative. !e selection of a “still image” metonymically prioritizes a moment. In “Fine Art”, Chen Fei takes generic historical (art) moments, Chinese and Western, to critique contemporary (art) history.
Natural History 2016 Acrylic on canvas 290 × 220 cm 114 3/16 × 86 5/8 in
Lewd and hilarious, the exhibition’s key work is Traditional Self-Portrait (2015), which depicts the artist life-size, nude and with an erection. Adopting the classical pose of a Western painter (including Rembrandt and Velázquez), including haugh" narcissism, Traditional Self-Portrait is at once pastiche and parody. Yet whereas 20
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Velázquez put his self-portrait as a witness into the royal portrait of Las Meninas (1656), in Chen Fei’s painting the focus is exclusively on the real king: the artist. In the painting, the presumed self-portrait that the Chen Fei figure is working on cannot be seen and even the background is an anonymous black. The self-portrait reflects the circulari" of narcissism (and art history, too), with the viewer co-opted into one of the subjective positions of the artist (are we observing from the position of the painter, the mirror or the painting being painted?). !e painting ambiguously mixes high and low art and culture, public and private life. !e reflexive artifice of the portrait (and self-portraiture) is emphasized by other doublings. !e right fore-arm and cock are in alignment, as are the brush in the right hand and the pale$e-painting in the le% (the pale$e/ mini-painting is a joke about the value and place of abstract art in art history). Further diegetic information is included in the figure’s ta$oos, including a physical depiction of a heart over the place where his actual heart would beat.
is about the surface rejecting paint(ing). Chen Fei, however, leaves nothing to chance but much is le% implied. His sunrise explosion has an actual emptiness at its center, much like the clichéd appearance of the rising sun in tattoos on Western bodies, celebrating the symbol’s slick design while apparently ignoring its dark heritage. Even in the demimonde and alternative scenes, Chen Fei stands apart. !e symbols of subcultures and high cultures, Western and Chinese, are equally fodder for jokes and critique. A ta$oo may be superficially permanent but signs are slippery and their stories open to interpretation. Chen Fei is not necessarily against hierarchies—subcultures are also exclusive—but he loves subverting them. Christopher Moore July 2017
In Sketch (2016), Saint Bartholomew/Hercules poses in a jungle. !e pose and head are drawn from the third century Farnese Hercules (c. 216 AD). !e flayed skin of his body, instead of that of the Nemean Lion, hangs from one shoulder, almost like a bathrobe, thus recalling the original placement of the statue in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome (c. 216 AD). Two piglets calmly gaze upon Hercules, recalling one of the 12 labors—the capture of the Erymanthian Boar—that the hero had to perform for murdering his family due to being bewitched by the goddess Hera. Hercules has begot a new family. In Natural History (2016) a woman dressed for clubbing or the gym, stands in an idyllic field surrounded by random animals, such as an armadillo, a squirrel and a penguin. In another domestic se$ing, National Conditions depicts a Chinese family in an apocryphal 1960s American living room, father reading a newspaper, mother sipping tea, an Afro-American child approaching the mother, while in the center of the painting a bust of Chen Fei looks on. A Dutch master still life depicts a Chinese bowl overflowing with fruit, including su&estive cucumbers and bananas. Finally, A Big Event depicts a graphic explosion of light rays, recalling popular but historically ambivalent Japanese sun iconography, specifically the imperial rising sun but also previously employed as elements in popular prints, including by such masters as Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). We could just as easily be looking at a Damien Hirst spin painting, produced semi-mechanically and which, among other things, 22
National Conditions 2017 Acrylic on canvas 200 × 300 cm 78 3/4 × 118 1/8 in
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Klara Kristalova CAM O U F LAG E
OPE N I N G TH U R S DAY S E PTE M B E R 7, 4 - 9 P M E X H I B ITI ON S E PTE M B E R 7 – O CTO B E R 7 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M
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Klara Kristalova Camouflage Opening Thursday September 7, 4 - 9 pm September 7 – October 7 Perrotin Paris is happy to present “Camouflage”, Klara Kristalova’s fi%h solo presentation with the gallery. An essential component without being literally represented in it, the landscape occupies Klara Kristalova’s mental and physical universe, without being a theme in and of itself. It is inferred in fragments from the drawings, ceramics and bronzes that populate the dark and mysterious exhibitions she has unveiled in recent years. She prefers evocation, the sensation of the landscape, to its literal representation. Selected from new productions created especially for this exhibition, the pieces first inhabited her immediate surroundings, before being installed in Paris. Her studio is located in the Swedish countryside, in the forest by a lake, north of the Stockholm region. !e scenography designed with the expertise of florist !ierry Boutemy is not a faith'l reconstitution, but rather an evocation of this pregnant environment that in'ses Kristalova’s imagination. In her new exhibition at Perrotin Paris, one room is dedicated to drawings, the others to the installation of her painted ceramics and bronzes. !ere we find hybrid characters with female bodies and heads of birds or flowers, out of scale heads, boys with flies’ wings, strange dogs, humans wearing animal masks, or yet shown in 'll metamorphosis. Kristalova’s inspiration is not made of concrete and linear narratives, nor extraordinary and surreal facts, but rather it is innervated by a more “normal” presence, a normali" that is certainly a bit strange but ultimately quite common, part of a reali" that offers a peek into the unbridled unconscious. Her community of characters accompanies her according to a narrative thread on its own. Undoubtedly, they are connected to the ordinary world and touch our unconscious; in a way, they are reassuring. Dark bird 2017 Glazed stoneware 132 × 42 × 35 cm 52 × 16 9/16 × 13 3/4 in View of the work installed nearby the artist’s studio
!e landscape where the characters find themselves in Kristalova’s working environment is not exceptional in the eyes of the artist, even though it enchants her visitors. Accustomed to this natural presence, Kristalova takes inspiration from it without copying it. It is a landscape that she admires without idealizing it, from which 26
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she draws great inspiration from the marvelous to the strange. !e familiari" of this place is the best substrate for her roaming imagination, giving birth to beings with heads of nasturtium, branchy roots, bodies covered with heavy feathers. Boredom is in fact the best vector for the imaginary. !e strangeness that sneaks around and escapes the banali" of everyday life takes the spectator on a wander through feelings mingling fear and fascination. Nature occupies a very large space, anxious, haunted by its own disappearance, by its exposure to the climate changes that tri&er its alteration. This sense of loss is everywhere in her work, in'sing forms with a certain melancholy, the desire to embrace this power'l and fragile resource. !e works of Klara Kristalova follow one another, responding from one exhibition to the next. !ey are nourished by each other, and by this nature that produced them. !ey are so close to the artist, populating her relationship with the world, day a%er day; she lives with them. Her studio is filled with their presence. In the landscape, they arise from the moss, the leaves, the earth. !is is what she wishes to reconstitute with this exhibition, without resorting to transposition. In Paris, reunited around a bronze dancing figure, they offer a new perspective on the disparate and tender family that emerges from clay under Klara Kristalova’s hands and brushes. Bénédicte Ramade July 2017
A very special thanks to "ierry Boutemy for the floral environment of the exhibition.
Left behind 2017 Glazed stoneware 98 × 35 × 27 cm 38 9/16 × 13 3/4 × 10 5/8 in View of the work at the artist’s studio
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Xavier Veilhan F LYI N G V
OPE N I N G TH U R S DAY S E PTE M B E R 7, 4 - 9 P M E X H I B ITI ON S E PTE M B E R 7 – S E PTE M B E R 23 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M
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Xavier Veilhan Flying V Opening Thursday September 7, 4 - 9 pm September 7 – September 23 Perrotin Paris is delighted to present “Flying V”, the seventh solo exhibition dedicated to french artist Xavier Veilhan at the gallery. Flying V is a model of electric guitar in the shape of an inverted V with a solid body $pe (i.e. without a soundboard), that was produced for the first time in 1958 by Gibson and became popular thanks to guitarists like Albert King and Jimi Hendrix. (Source: Wikipedia) !e work of Xavier Veilhan is a tribute to the inventions and inventors of modernity, via a formal language that mixes the codes of industry and art. He also nourishes his artistic approach through musical collaborations, notably with the group Air and musician Sébastien Tellier as well as with composer Éliane Radigue. Since last May and until the end of November, he has transformed the French Pavilion of the 2017 Venice Biennial into “Studio Venezia,” a musical installation in which professional musicians from across the world record their work throughout the duration of the biennial. Pursuing his research into formal and acoustic dynamics, Xavier Veilhan presents a series of works at Perrotin that traces new links between architecture and music, sound and space. Sculptural portraits of three music producers, realized in diverse materials, are presented, in particular: Nigel Godrich, Swizz Beatz and Philippe Zdar. !ey are accompanied by the Rays, lines of carbon extended in space, 'nctioning like transparent grids. !ey offer a half-presence, like the faceted statues, and evoke the dynamic applied to sound and represented by the Doppler effect: when the sound of an object in motion changes tonali" until it fades completely.
Philippe Zdar (detail) 2017 Birch, carbon, plywood 218 × 40 × 30 cm 85 13/16 × 15 3/4 × 11 13/16 in
Mobile nº4, in the third room, blends into an environment of the same color to become, as well, indistinct, ghostly. Xavier Veilhan explores here the instabili" of a form subjected to constant changes, fluctuating between appearance and disappearance.
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Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers !e faceted silhoue$es of architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers command a$ention with their size and bright color. !eir fading reduction transforms them into silent shadows. !ese sculptures are a variation of the two homonymous pieces in the Architects series, created for Xavier Veilhan’s personal exhibition at the Chateau de Versailles in 2009. In October, they will join the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne and be permanently installed on Place Edmond Michelet, across from their iconic creation, the Centre Pompidou, only a few months before the exhibition dedicated to the two architects there. !e works are constructed in stainless steel and painted in tones of green, colors that recall the color code of the building and the time of its construction. Exhibited without pedestals at Perrotin Paris, they will measure up to five meters high once installed in the public space. Conversation with Xavier Veilhan and Marc Tessier du Cros, founder of Record Makers Friday September 8 - 7 to 8 pm Salle de Bal, 60 rue de Turenne, Perrotin Paris, Marais Free entrance, subject to availabili"
Mobile nº3 (Music) 2015 Polyester resin, aluminum, stainless steel, polypropylene, polyurethane paint ø 450 × 330 cm max ø 177 1/8 × 129 7/8 in max
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Daniel Arsham TH E AN G LE O F R E POS E
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Daniel Arsham The Angle of Repose Opening Saturday October 14, 4 - 9 pm October 14 – December 23 For his new exhibition at Perrotin in Paris, New York-based artist Daniel Arsham revisits permanency while continuing to expand on his interest in Asian cultures, planetary cycles, and his own mortali"—a subject inherent to his artistic practice. Arsham, whose work has been widely exhibited internationally, questions not only the reception of a piece, but the influence a culture may have on new bodies of work. Since the very beginning, Arsham has worked with the notion of memory and time, intertwining his interest with architecture, while storytelling and science fiction have always held a significant importance in his work. !e artist’s personal memories of surviving a hurricane in 1992 made Arsham more sensitive to this idea of finiteness and is something we encounter in his reproduction of objects that deal with obsolescence. His recent exhibition in Korea, which revolves around toys and animals, is a continuation of the artist’s Fictional Archeology series first shown in 2013. Encasing the theme of a global archeology of the 'ture and poetic ruins, these works tread a fine line between past and 'ture. !e objects could be discoveries from the distant 'ture, artifacts from our current civilization that the artist has carved out and eroded.
Sand Painting (Large) 2017 Colored sand, resin, paint 177.8 × 114.3 × 7.6 cm 70 × 45 × 3 in
This approach is present in Arsham’s exhibition in Paris. Never forge$ing the past practice of rigorously selecting objects, placing it amongst a certain conceptual process, and then meticulously reworking them at his studio. Gri$y and terrestrial globes with surfaces of the moon correspond to paintings made from sand with geometric compositions. Arsham wanted to respond and match the space in the Marais, explaining “I wanted to play with the lighting of the gallery and the way it directly or indirectly enters the space, keeping in mind for this show Paris’ total history.” He says the exhibition would have been the same if it had been in the United States or Asia, even if this particular show draws inspiration from childhood, which also inspired the toys created for his exhibition in Korea earlier this year. In 2005, Arsham’s first Parisian representation touched on the notion of time as well 38
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and was entitled Homesick. He displayed his interest in architecture and construction more directly back then, blending imaginary structures with nature, while "ing in modernism. It’s as if he has taken some distance these last few years. Arsham is now exploring a passion for astrological timelessness and Eastern philosophies. !e craters that trim his globes or sand paintings are one of his emblematic trademarks, always referring back to the idea of infinitude, as well as unse$ling fragili". He adds, “In this exhibition, the question of time is seen on the one hand through the moon cycle, creating a link between this star and the decadence of objects. !ey appear as if they came from the past, all while playing on the ambigui" of the residue that could have clearly only come from the 'ture. When it comes to the sand paintings and the gardens composed of vivid colored pigments, they come from my research on Tibetan mandalas. In Japanese culture as well, for hundreds of years these same shapes and patterns have been explored and sometimes even modernized in their composition. I’m talking about the conception of cycles that seem static and unchanged for life, when in fact they are reused on a daily basis. My sand paintings are like a fixed version that seems temporary and ephemeral, when in fact it’s the opposite and they play on the idea of representation. My primary subject is therefore this connection between permanent and impermanent”. Moreover, it is an analogy for a creative process that finds itself pushed and energized by the different locations and cultures wherever his work is exhibited. !e understanding of his work can sometimes be mistakenly interpreted based on his nationali". Upon seeing the planets, one could think an allusion is made to the quest of outer space or to a Pop side the pieces evoke. Daniel Arsham finds himself more and more introspective and connected to an uchronic school of thought (if the past hadn’t been the past, what would the present or 'ture be?). He absorbs different cultures, rides on temporalities, happily gazing in different directions, o%en on the sidelines of contemporary art. !is intimate work is nowadays strictly associated to slow speed and contemplation, even though Arsham never fails to concurrently communicate, through the high-speed and oversaturated social media platforms. But the time dedicated to an exhibition is different, intimately resting, as the title su&ests: “!e Angle of Repose” is also, by definition, the angle at which a material will naturally bend until adopting a conical shape. It is a question of balancing particles, or physics, combined with the game of chance and a certain willingness to let go…
Blue Moon Gradient C 2017 (detail) Steel, hydrostone, pigment 41.9 × 30.5 × 33.3 cm 16 1/2 × 12 × 13 1/8 in
Marie Maertens
Curator and art critic. July 2017
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Julio Le Parc B I F U R CATI O N S
OPE N I N G SATU R DAY O CTO B E R 14, 4 - 9 P M E X H I B ITI ON O CTO B E R 14 – D EC E M B E R 23 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M
PE R R OTI N PAR I S 76 R U E D E TU R E N N E, MAR AI S
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Julio Le Parc BIFURCATIONS Opening Saturday October 14, 4 - 9 pm October 14 – December 23 Following his major retrospective at the Perez Art Museum, Miami, and his concurrent exhibition at Perrotin New York, Julio Le Parc, 89 years old, returns to Paris with an exhibition of recent and historic works. Both floors of the gallery will be dedicated to new installations and mobiles that will be exhibited alongside recent paintings. Shown for the first time, these works will create a dialog with the historical paintings, sculptures and installations from the 70s to the 90s. !is will be the first large-scale exhibition of Julio Le Parc in France since his important monographic exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in 2013. In conjunction with this show, Perrotin will publish a comprehensive bilingual book, which will include a text by Hans Ulrich Obrist and an interview between Julio Le Parc and Jérôme Sans. A founding member in 1960 of the influential collective GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel along with Horacio Garcia Rossi, Francisco Sobrino, François Morellet, Joël Stein and Yvaral) and a precursor of Kinetic Art and Op Art, Julio Le Parc is a major figure throughout art history. Since 1959, Le Parc has developed his own independent path applying rigorous organizing principles to his research whether exploring the use of 14 scales of colors, or white, gray and black in varying yet precise endless combinations.
Alchimie 349 2016 Acrylic on canvas 200 × 200 cm 78 3/4 × 78 3/4 in
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From 1960 onwards, Le Parc simultaneously produced paintings that are founded on rigorous systems of organization of surface, and correlation of forms, as well as vibratory reliefs and immersive installations. Le Parc was particularly interested in opening up new relations between his experimentations and viewers whereby the visitor is no longer a passive, dependent observer, but the active and dynamic participant. Julio Le Parc was born in 1928 in Mendoza, Argentina and has lived and worked in Paris since 1958. He was awarded the International Grand Prize for Painting at the 33rd Venice Biennial in 1966. A defender of human rights, he fought against dictatorship in Latin America through numerous collective anti-fascist projects. His works are included in numerous public collections worldwide and have been the subject of many international exhibitions across the globe.
Relief avec plaques réfléchissantes 1966 Inox 80 × 80 × 8 cm 31 1/2 × 31 1/2 × 3 1/8 in
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John Henderson re-er
OPE N I N G F R I DAY S E PTE M B E R 1, 6 - 8 P M E X H I B ITI ON S E PTE M B E R 1 – N OVE M B E R 11 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M 開幕酒會 9月1日（週五）| 6 - 8 P M 展覽日期 9月1日 — 11月11日 週二 — 週六 | 11 AM - 7 P M
PE R R OTI N H ON G KON G 50 C O N NAU G HT R OAD C E NTR AL
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John Henderson re-er Opening Friday September 1, 6 - 8 pm September 1 – November 11 Following exhibitions in Hong Kong, New York, and Paris, Perrotin is delighted to present John Henderson’s second solo show in Hong Kong. John Henderson’s oeuvre has long revolved around the problematic of modernism, abstraction, and the painterly gesture. In this sense, he could possibly be situated in the context of a larger wave of processbased abstraction in recent years, one that is marked by the flatness of the picture plane, a preoccupation with process, and improvised gestures indexing the real. As the critic David Geers has argued, this trend is “in equal parts, a generational fatigue with theory; a growing split between hand-made artistic production and social practice; and a legitimate and thri%y a$empt to ‘keep it real’ in the face of an ever-expansive image culture and slick ‘commodi" art’.” 1 Yet what sets Henderson apart is his reflexive distance to the painterly, pu$ing the romance of the authorial gesture and the assumption of an unproblematic spectatorship into question. On the one hand, the artist admits the performative element to his work, but on the other, he problematizes it by “translations”, “documentations”, and erasures. Understanding painting as performance is, of course, nothing new. Since the heyday of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, when the critic Harold Rosenberg declared that henceforth paintings would be “an arena in which to act… What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event” 2, the performative gesture in painting has been a guarantee of presence. In the present age, this guarantee of presence also firms up the value of painting in the face of digital and new media incursions. Henderson’s oeuvre, however, problematizes this performative gesture, frustrating a simple relation of the picture plane to the real, or more specifically, the link between the painterly gesture to the biographical real invoked in much process-based abstraction. His earlier series of works, for instance, involved what the artist called “translation” or “documentation”—basically an extra layer that s"mies a simplistic interpretation of the gesture of the artist’s hand (along with whatever the narrative imbued therein). In Casts and Types (where the artist casts sculptures of his original paintings 50
in various metals) and Recasts (a parodic series where such paintings are finished with metallic spray paint), Henderson combines the individualistic expressivi" of the brush with the industrial procedures (of the foundry, in some cases)—and thus constitutes a cool-headed, formalist resistance to some of the pitfalls of processbased abstraction. One is also reminded here of the post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida’s notion of “under erasure” (sous rature). In relation to writing, this is “to write a word, cross it out, and then print both word and deletion,” 3 or yet “the mark of the absence of a presence, and always already absent present, of the lack of the origin that is the condition of thought and experience.” 4 !e notion of “under erasure” is the “strategy of using the only available language while not subscribing to its premises.” 5 Henderson’s approach certainly points to a sophisticated deconstructive doubleness: presence/absence, origin/copy, and so on, which ultimately also opens up questions about the present condition of painting. 51
Reticle (model 00) 2017 Acrylic painting, gesso, printed ink, MDF panel 45.7 × 58.4 cm 18 × 23 in
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!e title of the show, “re-er”, is therefore worth elaborating on, with the prefix “re-” indicating repetition (“re-new”) or a backward motion (“re-trace”), and the suffix “-er” indicating a comparative degree (“fla$er”). By pu$ing expressive abstraction “under erasure”, Henderson complicates it, distances himself from it, and thereby places it in play, generating a thought'l complexi" that gestures at possible 'ture paths. In a way, we can see this in almost literal terms with Untitled Paintings, where Henderson expressively and meticulously applies each layer of paint, before removing the paint with trowels, pale$e knives, and hard rollers to achieve a flat surface. !is additive subtraction renders a rather haunting, ethereal atmospheric picture plane that alludes to loss, ruination, and memory (one could think of Freud’s wax tablet model of memory); the original mark-making hand cannot be seen and yet the traces are still visible. While this palimpsestic effect complicates the authorial or painterly presence, the slight bezel on the edges might also highlight the constructed nature of the images. !e new series Reticle (model) presents paintings on MDF panels with thick white impasto strokes overlaid by blue grids of different scales. While the white background might for some viewers be redolent of the works of Robert Ryman, or else su&ests a modernist “clean slate” that negates prior values, the artist sees it almost as “models of paintings” that he performs according to pre-existent templates and languages. Meanwhile, the blue grids are printed directly onto the painting and —over a caesura—on the “frame” (note that the frame is in fact part of the painting). Certainly, as the critic Rosalind Krauss argued back in 1979, the grid is an “emblem of moderni"” in art since the early 20th century— one sees this from Malevich and Mondrian to Ellsworth Kelly and Sol Lewi$, among many others—linking up science and rationali" (graphs and maps) all the while declaring the autonomy of the realm of art (turning away from representation and figuration, turning its back on nature). 6 !at the blue grids extend across a break to the edges of the “frame” su&ests a “centri'gal” reading of the grid here: the grid extends infinitely outwards, forcing the viewer to reckon with the world beyond the frame. !e title “Reticle”—the lines in the eyepiece of optical devices—is also illuminating, for it su&ests a particular position for the viewer, as though there were an extra digital layer of the camera interceding between the eyes of the viewer and the painting itself; this reading is also reinforced by the different scales of the grids, alluding to shi%ing foci of vision (for example, when zooming in or out).
of images and serve as notice to viewers to observe closely and pay a$ention, all the while aligning the aesthetic with the cognitive and the critical. With Reticle (model), juxtaposing the personally expressive strokes and the rationali" of the grid generates a tension between spontanei" and construction, while positioning the modernist emblem of the grid in relation to the digital ushers in questions about the importance and condition of painting in the larger, almost overwhelming expanse of visual culture and digital imagery. Daniel Szehin Ho July 2017
1. David Geers, “Formal Affairs”, Frieze, March 2015. 2. Harold Rosenberg, “!e American Action Painters”, Art News, December 1952. 3. Gayatri Spivak’s “Translator’s Preface” to Derrida’s Of Grammatology, XIV.
In a way, this train of enquiry extends from Henderson’s earlier photographic series Flowers. Such a complex overlay of painting and photographic processes direct a$ention to the possible manipulation 52
4. Ibid., XVII. 5. Ibid., XVIII. 6. Rosalind Krauss, “Grids”, October, vol. 9 (summer 1979), pp. 50–64.
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Reticle (model 00) (detail) 2017 Acrylic painting, gesso, printed ink, MDF panel 45.7 × 58.4 cm 18 × 23 in
Jesper Just C O NTI N U O US M O N U M E NTS (I NTE R PAS S IVITI ES)
OPE N I N G F R I DAY S E PTE M B E R 1, 6 - 8 P M E X H I B ITI ON S E PTE M B E R 1 – N OVE M B E R 11 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M 開幕酒會 9月1日（週五）| 6 - 8 P M 展覽日期 9月1日 — 11月11日 週二 — 週六 | 11 AM - 7 P M
PE R R OTI N H ON G KON G 50 C O N NAU G HT R OAD C E NTR AL
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Jesper Just Continuous Monuments (Interpassivities) Opening Friday September 1, 6 - 8 pm September 1 – November 11 Perrotin Hong Kong is pleased to present Jesper Just’s latest film Continuous Monuments (Interpassivities). !e film shows musician Kim Gordon, former bassist in the legendary band Sonic Youth, in a landscape delineated by a long fence on the US / Mexico border. Gordon, donning a tutu and cowboy boots, runs a stick along the border fence, creating a rhythm in a childlike gesture, but one executed with intention. !e wall, a symbol of division and divisive politics suddenly becomes a musical instrument. In reassigning its meaning and transforming it into a productive object, capable of creation, the power structures between architecture, territory and 'nction are rearranged. Rather than a border, the wall becomes a monument, stripped of its intended pragmatic 'nction, linking the viewer through space and sound through a universal experience of sensation and impulse, not void of humor and defiance. Interested in how public and private spaces define and shape the nature and extent of human interactions, Jesper Just 'rther plays with the notion of architecture performing in his films and installations to echo and expand his characters’ enigmatic journeys. Internationally recognized artist Jesper Just (born in 1974, lives in New York) represented Denmark at the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in diverse and international institutions, among them !e Palais de To2o, Paris, France, Performa15; Times Square, New York, USA; !e National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, !e Netherlands or Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA.
Continuous Monuments (Interpassivities) (film stills) 2017 Video
Just’s work is included in public collections such as the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Tate Modern, London, UK; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pi$sburgh, USA; !e Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Gu&enheim Museum, New York, USA; !e National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea, amongst others. 56
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Gimhongsok S U B S I D IARY C O N STR U CTI O N
OPE N I N G F R I DAY N OVE M B E R 17, 6 - 8 P M E X H I B ITI ON N OVE M B E R 17, 2017 – JAN UARY 13, 2018 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M 開幕酒會 11月17日（週五）| 6 - 8 P M 展覽日期 2017年11月17日 — 2018年1月13日 週二 — 週六 | 11 AM - 7 P M
PE R R OTI N H ON G KON G 50 C O N NAU G HT R OAD C E NTR AL
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Gimhongsok Subsidiary Construction Opening Friday November 17, 6 - 8 pm November 17, 2017 – January 13, 2018 Perrotin Hong Kong proudly presents Gimhongsok’s “Subsidiary Construction”. Carried out since 2008, this project is concerned about political a$itude and ethical politics of art through materials and forms. While in his studio one day, Gimhongsok realized that the wrapped state of his artworks are also subjective objects just like the actual works themselves. Objects we encounter can be equal in value or meaning in existence, but all objects are determined and judged by political and social elements, just as artworks are subjected in art exhibitions. The implicit politics of materials portrayed by traditional artists choosing artistic materials including stone, metal, wood and canvas, and the political manner of contemporary artists selecting everyday objects—both incidences separated by a distinct boundary—indicate an independent subject ma$er. Gimhongsok addresses this hierarchical condition; in other words, he reverses the dual nature of the confrontational situations between the principal agent and its surroundings by subjecti3ing peripheral materials. Packaging materials that are used to protect artworks, expanded polys"rene foam that is installed behind office walls, cardboard boxes containing products, plastic bags filled with goods, etc., things that supplement independent objects are placed as the main subjects of Gimhongsok’s works. Gimhongsok creates forms, structures and combinations with subsidiary materials such as plastic bags, cardboard boxes, PVC fabric, lumber, plywood, and expanded polys"rene foam, and augments these materials into three-dimensional sculptures.
A Study on Slanted and Hyperbolic Constitution-LOVE 2011 Cast resin 90 × 155 × 345 cm 35 7/16 × 61 × 135 13/16 in
“"e landscape decorated by plastic bags that have been casually tossed aside can be seen as a kind of a collaborative project by the public, where the story of the material can change depending on an anonymous passerby. For example, a person may decide to stuff the bag le& on the street with a soda bo!le to throw it away —and thus the material’s meaning and form will be unexpectedly affected, allowing for a rich allegory to be created. Finally, because there are no set guidelines for the use of plastic bags, its narrative is spontaneous and can therefore be seen as a true agreement.” Gimhongsok, 2006 62
Bernard Frize TO N G U E AN D G R O OVE
OPE N I N G WE D N ES DAY AU G UST 3 0, 5 - 7 P M E X H I B ITI ON AU G UST 3 0 – O CTO B E R 21 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 10 AM - 6 P M 오프닝 리셉션 8. 3 0 (수)ㅣ5 - 7 P M 전시기간 8. 3 0 - 10. 21. 2017 화요일 - 토요일ㅣ10 AM - 6 P M
PE R R OTI N S E OU L 5 PALPAN- G I L, J O N G N O - G U
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Bernard Frize Tongue and Groove Opening Wednesday August 30, 5 - 7 pm August 30 – October 21 Perrotin Seoul is happy to present a solo show of Bernard Frize, who returns to Korea with an exhibition of recent works. ARTI ST O R ART LI K E P E N E LO P E: O N B E R NAR D F R I Z E’S R EC E NT WO R KS A remarkable work of art attracts a wide range of viewers and simultaneously triggers a profound and sincere rationale and interpretation of the work. In one respect, a painting of a high standard with a wide-ranging visual effect instantly and instinctively draws many viewers, regardless of their aesthetic taste or artistic view. However, on the other hand, those charismatic works provide a private yet open arena that allows viewers to explore intellectually. !is is made possible because such works not only possess visual a$ractiveness but hold the power that invokes self-introspection. And these are also the reasons that we aim for an amalgamation of art and humanities and actively pursue their interaction. Recent works of Bernard Frize continue to be mature and masterly; steadily maintaining the visual aesthetic that the artist has developed in his oeuvre over the years. The surfaces of these rectangular canvases have formal composition that appear more complete than in any previous works. Ripe colors, deep hues, delicate movement of the brush that crisscross in vertical and horizontal parallels, strict yet rhythmical painterly touch, and the interaction of these elements at play reveals an extraordinary surface as if it creates a perfect mini universe. We can experience a similar aesthetic in Frize’s works completed in 2016 of the Feux et Lacs series. As su&ested by the title, the series is based on the adaptation of the northern lights which are iridescent colors and hues permeated by darkness. Here, the waterfall and oceans form the compositional elements; verticals are symbolized by waterfalls and horizontals are reminiscent of the sea. Yet, the recent works amplify their formative characteristics as described earlier in this text and therefore they stimulate the viewer’s emotions and are even more open to intellectual rationale. 66
Barents 1999 Acrylic and resin on canvas 228 × 245.5 cm 89 3/4 × 96 5/8 in
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Knowing that the most technically perfect mechanical devices are also the most natural and human-friendly, Frize’s paintings also reach out to the viewer in a rich and supple reverberation and stimulate the viewer metaphysically while he maintains a mechanical method of creation which controls the artist’s subjectivi". Moreover, his works offer a fresh analysis of the significance of Greek mythology from a humanities standpoint. In association with the recent paintings of Frize in which verticals and horizontals cross each other in a grid, one ancient Greek myth most rhetorically and aptly comes to mind. !at is the story of Penelope which appears in Homer’s epic, Odyssey. !ough there is no need to repeat the myth well known to all, let us briefly recall: the protagonist, beauti'l wife of Odysseus who pretends to weave a shroud only to undo a part of the shroud every night as a trick to delay her marriage to potential suitors in order to keep her identi" and remain faith'l to Odysseus, is ultimately honored for her fideli". !is myth of Penelope’s weaving with warp and thread, vertically and horizontally on a loom connects beauti'lly with Frize’s paintings. Going beyond a physical similari", interpretation of the two from a humanities standpoint 'rther enhances their symbolic meaning. Countless repetition of Penelope’s weaving and Frize’s working process of layering paint on canvas is not economically fruit'l nor satisfactory for a goal-driven outcome. Conversely, the artist’s actions are identified as a kind of idle inoperative creation that preserves his essence that is most pure and distinctly his. Frize, as a creator of these works, does not campaign himself as the work’s owner, subject or narcissist in the creative process. Instead, he keeps his stance as an invisible performer of the aesthetic. He works tirelessly as an intermediary so that humanly beauti'l and natural artistic qualities can be shared far and wide. !rough his recent works, Bernard Frize 'lly captures us in a state of ecstasy, and for the reasons stated above, his works have the power to lead us to sincere insight and liberating rationale.
Born in Saint-Mandé, France, Bernard Frize lives and works in Paris and Berlin. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions worldwide, including the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, Portugal; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany; Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany; Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; S.M.A.C.K., Ghent, Belgium; Gemeentemuseum, the Hague, The Netherlands; Kunstmuseum Basel & Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland; Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster, Germany; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; Museum Moderner Kunst, Sti%ung Ludwig, Wien, Austria; De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, !e Netherlands; Ivan Dougher" Gallery, Sydney, Australia; Kunsthalle, Zürich, Switzerland; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pi$sburgh, USA and Villa Medici, Rome, Italy. In 2015, he has been awarded of the prestigious Kathe-Kollwitz Prize at the Art Academy in Berlin. He has also been featured in important group exhibitions, including the Sao Paolo Biennial, Venice Biennial, and Sydney Biennial. His work is represented in more than 45 public collections around the world, including the Tate Gallery, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MUMOK, Vienna; NMAO the National Museum of Art Osaka; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frank'rt; the Kunstmuseum, Basel; and the Kunsthalle, Zurich…
Dr. Sumi Kang
July 2017 Dr. Sumi Kang is an art historian and art critic. She is a professor of Western Art !eory at Dongduk Women’s Universi" and the author of Ticklish Subject – Korean Contemporary Art Since 2000, "e Art of Criticism, and Aisthēsis: "inking with Walter Benjamin’s Aesthetics.
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MADSAKI
OPE N I N G WE D N ES DAY N OVE M B E R 15, 5 - 7 P M E X H I B ITI ON N OVE M B E R 15, 2017 – JAN UARY 13, 2018 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 10 AM - 6 P M 오프닝 리셉션 11. 15 (수)ㅣ5 - 7 P M 전시기간 11. 15. 2017 - 1. 13. 2018 화요일 - 토요일ㅣ10 AM - 6 P M
PE R R OTI N S E OU L 5 PALPAN- G I L, J O N G N O - G U
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MADSAKI Opening Wednesday November 15, 5 - 7 pm November 15, 2017 – January 13, 2018
Perrotin Seoul is delighted to present the first solo show of Japanese artist MADSAKI at the gallery, in collaboration with Kaikai Kiki Gallery. !e exhibition will display a series of new works, specially produced for the show. “Since the beginning of his career as an artist, MADSAKI has shown us numerous s$les ranging from extremely detailed drawings to large-scale sculptures and installations. Recently his s$le underwent dramatic change where provocative words and phrases now play a center role. Despite this change, MADSAKI continuously observes society and everyday life from a distinct perspective, reinterpreting and reconstructing the extracted essences into his own work. As many artists have done in the past with phrases and words, what MADSAKI portrays through his works cannot be categorized as simply ‘slander’, but is a form of ‘reconfigured phrases’ easily surpassing the symbolic meanings of the original words to satirize and banter the society we live in, while raising many questions. His ‘phrases’, at times roughly wri!en, question the viewers whether what they see should be taken for granted, or if it is something that should be deeply interpreted. "e viewers are pushed even (rther to the point where they have to depend on their sense of values to determine if what they are facing is even a work of ‘art’ or not. "rough his works MADSAKI challenges and stirs the stereo$pe values of various systems we encounter in daily life.” Taku Sato MADSAKI was born in 1974 in Osaka, Japan. He lives and works in To2o, Japan. Le Reve 2 2017 130 × 97 cm 51 3/16 × 38 3/16 in Acrylic and aerosol on canvas ©2017 MADSAKI
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Paola Pivi TH EY ALL LO O K TH E SAM E
OPE N I N G SATU R DAY AU G UST 26, 5 - 7 P M E X H I B ITI ON AU G UST 26 – N OVE M B E R 11 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M オープニング 8月26日 （土) | 5 - 7 P M 展覧会 8月26日 （土）-11月11日 （土） 火曜 - 土曜 | 11 AM - 7 P M
PE R R OTI N TOKYO P I R AM I D E B U I LD I N G, 6-6-9 R O P PO N G I, M I NATO -K U
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Paola Pivi They All Look The Same Opening Saturday August 26, 5 - 7 pm August 26 – November 11 Perrotin To2o is proud to present a solo exhibition by Paola Pivi, coinciding with her participation in the Yokohama Triennale. !is is the Italian artist’s eighth solo show with the gallery, a%er Paris, Miami, and New York, and the second exhibition held at Perrotin To2o inaugurated last June. !e series of artworks Paola Pivi presents in To2o exemplifies her phantasmagorical and unbridled world, “as beauti(l as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table,” as Lautréamont would say. Here, polar bears and feathered wheels live in lighthearted harmony, almost floating in a space that looks out over the ci" and a$racts the glances of passers-by. !e work of Paola Pivi is undisputedly compelling, leaving no one indifferent. Her series of multicolored bears had already captivated viewers at the “Ok, you are be$er than me, so what?” exhibition for the opening of Perrotin New York.
Did you rest ? 2016 Aluminum, peacock feathers, engine Ø 215 cm Ø 84 5/8 in
Once again, Pivi’s bears put on a show, striking poses and playing with the space that opens onto the exterior of the gallery. One extra-large polar bear—the bi&est ever made by Pivi—is caught mid-air as if it had just boldly leaped into the void, while another is pointing down in a fearless dive. !e bears are covered with feathers in a range of colors from white to electric blue. Massimiliano Gioni 1 describes the spectacular nature of Pivi’s work in these terms: “Paola Pivi’s work moves to the fevered beat of a Carnival par". And in fact, she has o%en thought of her work as a kind of festivi".” 2 !e impression of movement is accentuated by a series of wall-mounted wheels in motion, captivating metal creations adorned with natural feathers. “They all look the same”—for that is the name of the new series—are artworks specially made for the exhibition with feathers sourced in Japan. Evoking in turn the wheel of a peacock’s tail, Native American dream catchers, Marcel Duchamp’s bicycle wheel, or a hypnotic pendulum, Pivi’s wheels offer a minimalist counterpoint to the feathered bears on display. 76
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!e very placement of Pivi’s installations is central to her creative process, boldly moving beyond the conventional codes of practice for staging exhibitions. Massimiliano Gioni writes, “In her installations, as in her choice of certain colors and essences, Paola Pivi adopts the chilly esthetic of product display. Rather than as installations, Paola Pivi’s pieces could be better described as simulations […] the con'sion is not between art and non-art, but between the real and the possible, between truth and hallucination.” 3 Paola Pivi invites us to a joy'l show that seems to pay no heed to any principles of reali" or laws of gravi", true to her epicurean vision of creation. As Jens Hoffmann 4 explains, “!e task of constructing symbolic importance is one that viewers self-assign […] !e childlike awe inspired by Pivi’s pieces is not always embroiled in such contention; sometimes it’s just about wonder.” 5 Proposing “an implied collective” 6, Pivi’s works appeal to our personal experience, our perceptions, our imagination, as opposed to a rational logic. Absurd but above all free, nature revisited by the artist affords a radical, parodying vision of our contemporary artifacts—objects, animals or similar creatures—within a strange and magical, topsy-turvy world. Yokohama Triennale, Japan Various locations August 4 – November 5, 2017 Talk with Paola Pivi Friday 25 Aug. 3.30 - 5 pm Lecture Room, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan Free entrance
1. Currently Artistic Director of the New Museum in New York. 2. Massimiliano Gioni, We Want It All, published in “Paola Pivi”, Damiani – Perrotin, 2013.
Too late 2017 Urethane foam, plastic, feathers 234 × 173 × 87 cm 92 1/8 × 68 1/8 × 34 1/4 in
3. Ibid. 4. Currently Director of Special Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Jewish Museum in New York. 5. Jens Hoffmann, Say it like you mean it, published in “Paola Pivi”, Damiani – Perrotin, 2013. 6. Ibid.
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TOILETPAPER
Collaboration between Maurizio Ca!elan & Pierpaolo Ferrari
OPE N I N G WE D N ES DAY N OVE M B E R 22, 5 - 7 P M E X H I B ITI ON N OVE M B E R 22, 2017 – JAN UARY 10, 2018 TU ES DAY - SATU R DAY, 11 AM - 7 P M オープニング 11月22日 （水) | 5 - 7 P M 展覧会 2017年11月22日(水)-2018年1月10日(土) 火曜 - 土曜 | 11 AM - 7 P M
PE R R OTI N TOKYO P I R AM I D E B U I LD I N G, 6-6-9 R O P PO N G I, M I NATO -K U
TO KYO
TO KYO
TOILETPAPER
COLLABORATION BETWEEN MAURIZIO CATTELAN & PIERPAOLO FERRARI
Opening Wednesday November 22, 5 - 7 pm November 22, 2017 – January 10, 2018 Perrotin To2o proudly presents an exhibition of TOILETPAPER, a collaboration between contemporary artist Maurizio Ca$elan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. TOILETPAPER is known for its chee2 hyperreal imagery, breaking down the prevailing codes and photographic motifs of fashion. Photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari first met artist Maurizio Ca$elan when capturing him on camera more than ten years ago. !e magic worked and the pair went on to create the experimental art magazine TOILETPAPER in 2010. In a class of its own, the image-only publication features care'lly constructed photographs in a unique time and mental space. On the surface, the composition shots in TOILETPAPER have a quaint, slightly retro feel to them —an art'l way of drawing us in before catching us off guard as we realize what we are actually looking at… Intriguing, comical, startling— the images in TOILETPAPER are guaranteed to leave their mark. “Image recycling is our inspiration. TOILETPAPER is the new frontier of media and creative eco-sustainabili$. We take all the visual entropy produced in a schizophrenic way and we channel it into a new identi$.”
In 2012, TOILETPAPER exhibited on the High Line Billboard in New York Ci". In the same year, images taken from the first six issues were published in an anthology, together with selected narrative texts, that was reviewed in !e New York Times’ Top 10 Photo Books. In June 2013, TOILETPAPER images were featured on Palais de To2o’s front windows and a special edition of Libération. !ey shot to fame when they began working with Kenzo in 2013, lending the advertising campaigns their distinctive supersaturated and surrealist flair. In addition to the magazine and contemporary imagery created by the pair, Ca$elan and Ferrari have diversified their creative output to include 'rniture, clothing, objets d’art and books. In 2016, they worked with French group CASSIUS and produced their “Ibifornia” album cover and the hit video clip “Action”. Featured TOILETPAPER images are put into motion within a surrealistic story teleporting Philippe Zdar and Hubert Boombass to “Ibifornia” island. Elsa Janssen
TOILETPAPER’s assemblages are of course inspired by “found images” taken from the Internet and magazines: breaking down prevailing codes of fashion, advertising and cinema is the duo’s leitmotiv. On top of this comes an eclectic mix of forms: from consumer items and food to animals of all kinds, perhaps alluding to the artistic work of Maurizio Ca$elan. The main reason why the duo originally opted for a magazine as a platform for their art was to ensure the images circulated among the widest possible audience.
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Untitled 2017 Gilded wood, mirror, glass, UV color print 145.5 × 77 cm 57 5/16 × 30 5/16 in
Untitled 2017 Gilded wood, mirror, glass, UV color print 143 × 87 cm 56 5/16 × 34 1/4 in
ARTI ST N EWS Selection of solo shows
Daniel Arsham “Time in Silence” !rough October 18, 2017 Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul South Korea
Elmgreen & Dragset
Jean-Michel Othoniel
“Die Zugezogenen” Curated by Dr. Magdalena Holzhey & Irina Raskin !rough August 27, 2017 Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany
“Géométries Amoureuses” !rough September 24, 2017 CRAC - Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain, Sète & Carré Sainte-Anne, Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussilon, France
Elmgreen & Dragset are the curators of the 15th Istanbul Biennial September 16 - November 12, 2017 Istanbul, Turkey
Michael Sailstorfer
Lionel Estève
Solo show at Jupiter Artland !rough October 1, 2017 Jupiter Artland Edinburgh, Scotland
“Moving Architecture.” September 29, 2017 - January 10, 2018 VDNKh, Moscow, Russia
Solo show October 18 - November 4, 2017 Manufacture de Sèvres Paris, France
Solo show at Kunsthal 44 Moen !rough September 17, 2017 Kunsthal 44 Moen Askeby, Denmark
Sophie Calle
Jesper Just
Pierre Soulages
Solo show Curated by Sonia Voss October 10, 2017 - February 11, 2018 Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France
“Continuous Monuments” Curated by Nina Folkersma !rough September 10, 2017 West Museumkwartier !e Hague, !e Netherlands
“Leidenscha" . Passion - In Focus: Pierre Soulages” !rough January 21, 2018 Museum Art.Plus, Donaueschingen, Germany
Bharti Kher
Aya Takano
“Bharti Kher: Sketchbooks and Diaries” September 20, 2017 - September 6, 2018 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, Massachuse$s, USA
“Synesthesia” !rough August 30, 2017 Pavillon Bosio, Monaco
“It Speaks” September 8 - December, 2017 Oi Futuro Museu Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
“Here lie the secrets of the visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery” A 25-year long public artwork commissioned by Creative Time !rough April 30, 2042 Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn, New York, USA
Wim Delvoye Solo show Curated by Andres Pardey !rough January 1, 2018 Musée Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland
Takashi Murakami “Takashi Murakami: !e Octopus Eats Its Own Leg” Curator Michael Darling !rough September 24, 2017 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, USA “Under the Radiation Falls” Curated by Ekatarina Inozemtseva September 29, 2017 - February 4, 2018 Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Moscow, Russia
Xavier Veilhan Xavier Veilhan represents France at the 57th Venice Biennial “Studio Venezia” Curated by Christian Marclay and Lionel Bovier !rough November 26, 2017 French Pavilion, Giardini Venice Biennial, Italy
ART FAI R S
Code Art Fair Copenhagen August 31 - September 3, 2017
Expo Chicago September 13 - 17, 2017
KIAF Art Seoul September 21 - 24, 2017
Frieze Art Fair London October 5 - 8, 2017
FIAC Paris October 19 - 22, 2017
Westbund Art Fair Shanghai November 10 - 12, 2017
Art021 Shanghai November 10 - 12, 2017
Art Basel Miami Beach December 7 - 10, 2017
Photography Robert Chase Heishman, Andrea Biganzoli, Claire Dorn, Yang Hao, Kim Kyoung-ho, A!ilio Maranzano, Craig Smith, Märta "isner, Todd-White Art Photography, Guillaume Ziccarelli, D.R. © ADAGP, Paris, 2017 ARS, New York, 2017 SACK, Seoul, 2017 Courtesy the Artists & Perrotin