Art Paris 2022: Domesticity, Surrealism, and the Influence of the Digital are on Full Display
Interactions between the legacy of art and a new generation is what is selling at Art Paris 2022.
Art Paris 2022: Domesticity, Surrealism, and the Influence of the Digital are on Full Display
Coming off a record-breaking September 2021 show, Art Paris has returned to the Grand Palais Éphémère located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The themes of both “Natural Histories” and “Art & Environment” offer glances at the contemporary art in a country (and region) that has been so well known for its historical contribution. Since 2018, Art Paris has consistently supported the French contemporary art scene by inviting curators to lend a subjective, historical and critical eye on a selection of specific projects by French artists presented by participating galleries.
On the theme of “Art & Environment”, curator Alice Audouin states, “A new generation of artists born into the period of ecological crisis puts environmental issues at the heart of its practice. For these artists, ecology is not just a theme, but rather an expression of their relationship with the world.”
A single, simpler theme pertaining to the inter-generational conversation that is happening at Art Paris and the mix of the real and virtual may have been more apt given the selection. The works shown at Art Paris are generally very new, many created in the last two years, but a few galleries have chosen to add modern artists (including some solo shows). These works provided by history help contextualize the works of today, offering gravity by proximity (for the viewer), and inspiration and reason for the artists.
Conceptual Trends at Art Paris 2022
Many works successfully incorporate elements of the virtual into the real, marked by either manipulation of real images, use of archives and internet resources, or reproducing the look of digital manipulation in fine paintings. This is absolutely the result of a generation of artists who have developed practices with overwhelming access to information and the tools to quickly create in the digital space. Its an exciting turn for fine art, where the viewer’s own experience with digital tools and information could inform their interpretation of them. For those very familiar with the practices of digital creation, these works will feel native. Others may be bewildered by the possibilities. For example, François Morellet’s 10 lignes au hasard hybrides n°3 (2007) is a physical expression of a habit that many who used Microsoft Paint’s fill-area feature might be familiar with.
François Morellet, 10 lignes au hasard hybrides n°3, 2007. Image: Oniris
Going further, some artists have begun exploring the public domain or directly interpolating the works of the past into new work in the territory of renovation, recreation, and re-imagination. With the newfound legitimacy of digital and robotic works, artists are negotiating with history and directly influencing the future in a human manner. These involvements offer a very clear perspective of the art through the artists eyes (really, it is quite metaphysical).
Julio Vaquero, Luces de Delft, 2020. Image: Pigment Gallery
Laurence Aëgerter, PDUT927-1811261337 (Van Ruysdael), 2018. Image: Galerie Binome
Julio Vaquero’s encounter with Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665) is washed in blue, scratched and scribbled upon, feeling refreshed and suddenly urbane and even more timeless- an unusual and interesting way to address the pervasiveness of this image. We also see the practice of archival renaissance with the work of Laurence Aëgerter which consist of beautifully-rendered photographs of the Flemish landscape paintings of Jacob van Ruisdael with real mirrors as their seas, creating wholly new works. Alina Frieske's works are particularly remarkable for the quality and quantity of research needed to execute them. She uses research tools, as Google Images, to find her photographic material from the algorithm in place. Fragments of images taken from social media platforms are reconstructed into new scenarios that are rich with classical color palettes and generally accessible subject matter.
Depictions of Domesticity
In line with the first-person perspective of the artist, domestic life remains a fascination for artists and viewers alike. These works often reveal personalities, for example, the geometric, muted characters studies of Chechu Álava put the casually-posed organic shape of the human form against flat colors that seem to make up a room. Though her works tend toward portraiture, the presence of the environment feels too integral to be regaled to the status of portrait alone.
Yves Bélorgey's scenery of an open windows, storefronts, and architecture are stories of familiarity for some and insight for others, and even Taysir Batniji's simple view of a door latch in Aquarelle feels important because of its normalcy in context. Marion Charlet’s vivid play with perspective also offer fantastic views of normality in an exploded, colorful sense, providing scale and amusement. Martin Essl's photographs show a wide range of domestic life, from diving into pools to objects in the street. His guiding light is undoubtedly centered around light and shape and the scenario is maybe incidental.
Marion Charlet, Rendez-vous - Grand Chelem, 2021. Image: Paris-B
Thomas Andrea Barbey’s interpretation of pointillism is motivated by defining domestic scenes such as bedrooms and windows by way of mathematically random but intentional placement of colored dots. The scenes are usually calm and comfortable, and deeply familiar.
Basic Surrealism
Corine Borgnet's Le Dernier Souper - Fontaine de vie (2021) is a stack of plates in a garden. This was the entry point to an endless collection surrealist-motivated work at Art Paris. From a technical perspective, these works are a triumph. Advancing further, surrealism is important to French art. Question is essential. The successes include Camille Brès's Pauline B. à son bureau (2022) as an example of incorporating classically surrealist cues (the hyperrealistic eye) into a modern setting. Oda Jaune’s work enters territory of shocking quality, in which scale and human forms are warped and merged with animal, and infused with ideas of regality and opulence.
Camille Brès, Pauline B. à son bureau, 2022. Image: Galerie Ariane C-Y
But, Surrealism as a vehicle for story has been too deeply saturated by its omnipresence and instant-viral character found on the internet. Many of the works, no matter how thoughtful, come off as trite and unoriginal in their message simply because we’ve seen it so many times before. They feel elementary in their vision and unstable in their value. There’s more to it, and many Surrealist works with a message sit squarely in the territory of “We Live in a Society” art. Thomas Lerooy’s work is absolutely this: Under the skin (2021) visualizing a skull with a living person “under” it is a commentary the inevitability of death. Another work depicts a person “opening” the ocean like a bed sheet. Given the concept, it is so predictable in execution that it is insulting.
Portraiture
The portrait is a timeless way of exploring personality, informed by the rich legacy of a traditional one. Alia Ali's remarkably textured and faceless portraits are ripe with curiosity and a haunting (but not scary) invisibility. Soimadou Ibrahim’s portrait of a man with a medical mask tucked under his chin immediately requires living cultural knowledge of the pandemic to make sense of it (it feels instantly archival). The subject’s character is recognized. Zanele Muholi’s photographically-influenced portraits of queer South Africans, are, in their words, are “a form of visual activism”, with emotional expressions that inspire true curiosity for the viewer. Rebecca Brodskis’s shadowy subjects feel like exports from an other, more Art Deco world as they sit against ancient-feeling walls, often with a hand softly raised as a form of cautious defense.
Zanele Muholi, KHALIMA, 2021. Photo: Galerie Carole Kvasnevski
Memory and Movement
Andy Denzler's Girl Standing with Pink Top (part of a rare solo show at Opera Gallery's Paris location), is, according to the artist, an exploration of movement. But the result lies closer to ideas around memory- the fragment of it, the loss of it by way of blurred lines cutting cross the canvas, suggesting uncertainty, forgetfulness, and reminder. Casper Faassen's work is also unclear in a literal sense- embodying uncertainty in a fixed manner, rather than the dynamic aim of Denzler. François Bard’s work, particularly Casquette jaune (2022) (Cover image) are portraits in which the viewer is a witness to an action just passed. Something has happened and everyone is thinking about it. There are visions of shame, a scholarly painting that draws on an imaginary fiction but partly common to everyone.
Andy Denzler, Girl Standing with Pink Top 2017. Image: Opera Gallery
Technical Trends at Art Paris 2022
There is no question these are skilled artists being presented, often contemporary masters of their craft. But, paired with technical skill and only having known a digital world, a technical trend is the invocation of digital-like corruption and alteration of work in physical mediums. These new artists are motivated by masterful control of color, hyperrealistic and grand portraits, obscured by blurs, photographic negatives, surrealist elements, and more.
The fact these kinds of works are being presented an art fair is quite impressive given that are very removed from typically blue chip works and known artists that sell instantly.
Tapestry as a Medium
Thibault Brunet's tapestries were the first I encountered, and among the most satisfying. Vast expanses of dark blue are punctuated by a fragmented, beautifully illuminated building in tan, "merging the real and virtual," according to Nolwenn Thomas, assistant at Galerie Binome. And indeed, the pixel-like character feels so rich and oddly digital- amusingly real by way of this textural medium. And it’s so, restricted to only seven colors. Not present at the show, New York City-based artist Lena Schwartz is also doing clear-eyed tapestries of domesticity and the female form with precision and remarkable color. Suzanne Husky’s tapestries are explorations of stories, amplifications of life as it happens, compacted into a scale that begins to feel acceptable but no less beautiful.
Thibault Brunet, tapestry #2, 2020. Image: Galerie Binome
Vivid Realism
Paul Vergier’s works are highly-detailed views of decaying greenhouses and low integrity structures enjoying expert execution of challenging elements like sheer curtains, netting, and even plastic. Daiya Yamamoto’s depictions of delicate flowering plants are a great demonstration of control of light and shadow. Yamamoto wasn't the only artist creating therapeutic works around fauna and flora. Katarzyna Wiesiolek’s drawings share the realism and introduce locations to tell a further story. Her works feel like scientific reference drawings found in early natural philosophy texts, only with subjects situated in the world.
Daiya Yamamoto, Tinasbery, 2021. Image: Galerie Taménaga
Black
Whether as the elaborate ink drawings of Stéphane Blanquet (zooming across the page then forming, inexplicably, a collage), the inviting silhouettes of Jean-Charles Blais (possibly in mild conversation with the work of Jean Hélion), Ángel Alonso's thick and intense expanses of black, which leverage light to define texture, and in a similar vein, Toshiyuki Kajioka's literal rivers of tonal gray, with a clear source of light, many works supported the arrival of the consolidating and emotional magic of black. Michael Ray Charles’ work in the coal-toned black, reminiscent of early 20th Century minstrel show posters and racist advertising, has been part of the Rome Prize-winning African American artist’s practice for most of his career. He’s leverages these racial stereotypes to define a practice that explores serious issues, with, as film maker Spike Lee puts it, “[…] a deft humor”.
Gastineau Massamba, Poem of the Fears, 2021. Image: Galerie Anne de Villepoix
Finally, Gastineau Massamba’s Poem of the Fears (2021) is a triumph: laborious, yet refraining from ornamentation, the stark vignettes of human suffering are often defined by motifs of skeletons in upright positions, capitalistic cues, and even thriving nature. The details ranges from absolute definition to mere suggestions of form.
Art Paris ran from 7 April until 10 April, 2022 at the The Grand Palais Ephémère in Paris, FR. Learn about Art Paris here.
