Month: August 2024
Art : Concept is delighted to present Corentin Grossmann’s solo exhibition.
Grossmann’s fifth solo show reflects the continuation of the artist’s pictorial research. His in-depth explorations of color and light expand the expressive possibilities of drawing while enhancing the sensory and sensual dimensions of his works. For these latest pieces, the artist adopts a musical approach to creation, beginning with a pigment or emotion and evolving toward detail, aiming to evoke resonances in the viewer. He favors a vibratory approach, where the viewer’s eye follows a colorful composition unfolding into an infinite range of sensitive nuances. His soft pencil work envelops landscapes and figures in a unique, ethereal atmosphere.
In the exhibition, planets and stars take center stage, appearing as silent witnesses that bring continuity and unity to the collection. They symbolize a vision dear to the artist—one of recurring structures connecting the microcosm and the macrocosm. The title of the exhibition is in line with his previous shows, reflecting his refusal to confine himself to a single theme. Instead, he invites us not to seek resolution in what we see but to embrace the complexity of the world and the interdependence of beings, aiming to subvert the processes of categorization.
The celestial bodies, sources of both fascination and wonder, reflect the ambiguity of suspended time (which is also the time of creation), where the boundary between night and day, dream and reverie, fades away. These celestial bodies, with their revolutions, speeds, and distinct trajectories, occasionally intersect, creating configurations as unexpected as they are poetic, much like Corentin Grossmann’s images. This coexistence of different worlds, each with its own reality, illustrates how the artist perceives the world. For him, dream and reality are not opposites; rather, they harmoniously coexist. After all, doesn’t reality itself change depending on one’s perspective?
The artist’s dreamlike approach to his works does not prevent him from addressing contemporary issues. Environmental concerns, present since the beginning of his career, continue to evolve in his work, often approached in a subtle and indirect manner. He also questions sexuality, body representation, gender stereotypes, and associated power dynamics.
Kate Newby’s Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission, Hours in wind (2024) is a three-part installation inspired by the site of the MCA and Warrane/Sydney Cove.
Hours in wind unfolds across three locations at the MCA: the entrance, a space on Level 2 and the Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace on Level 4. Made from locally sourced and recycled shipping and sailing ropes, cast bronze, and cast and hand-blown glass, Newby’s installation navigates thresholds between interior and exterior space. It captures a sense of place and the constantly changing conditions of the harbour, including unpredictable weather patterns and the shifting light.
Newby was born in 1979 in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand and is currently based in Texas, US. She is known for sculptures and installations made from materials including glass and ceramics, as well as site-responsive works and architectural interventions. Attentive to natural phenomena such as light, wind and other weather conditions, Newby often blurs distinctions between public and private, and interior and exterior space in her works.
The 2024 Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission is generously supported by Lead Patrons Ginny and Leslie Green.