Category: shows

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.

“Before we had language and written stories we had images. There were ways of holding and communicating knowledge that did not require words; ways that had to do with the body and movement, like the form of a dance or a facial expression, or produced through drawing and images such as cave paintings. There is a language of the imagination and a life of the mind that predates logical reasoning and the urge to categorise. They are modes of thought deeply embedded in human culture and psychology.

Encountering the works of Caroline Achaintre is like taking a field trip to this different life of the mind. Her creations are full of idiosyncratic personalities and psychological resonances. They are at the same time majestic and absurd, transgressive and homely. Like artefacts of a lost civilisation or creatures that have wandered from the pages of an otherworldly bestiary, they challenge and play with our perceptions and emotions. They return our gaze, they get under our skin, they make us laugh, they hide secrets, they resist interpretation, and pose questions that do not have answers.”

Excerpt from the press release, Brian Cass

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« Jacob Kassay’s works assimilate all the conditions in which they are exhibited. The same stands true of the expectations that these conventions have created for the production of art as well as other types of goods, such as those whose desirability conceals a dose of mystery and a dose of frustration. »

–Extract of the press release, Julie Portier, 2024

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“If there is one thing Richard Fauguet has got us used to, it’s his use of puns and set phrases in the names of his exhibitions, which, in an area of art where seriousness reigns supreme, can be disconcerting. His new exhibition at the Art : Concept gallery is no exception to this (pseudo) rule, and, from the outset, Pipe-Show makes us smile with the promise of an alluring performance.”*

*Excerpt from the press release by Xavier Franceschi, curator of the show.

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The gallery team is deeply saddened by the death of Lin May Saeed.
Despite this terrible news, we have chosen to maintain the exhibition organized in recent years in collaboration with the artist and his gallery Jacky Strenz. Because this exhibition was so important to her, and because we are convinced of the importance of her work, we are continuing this project in her memory with a selection of recent works.

Lin May Saeed’s latest series illustrate a certain narrative of the conflictual relationship between humans and animals, from prehistory to the present day. Her various references, drawing on both Western traditions and her Judeo-Arabic heritage, range from the Animal Liberation Front to Die Brücke and ancient Mesopotamia*.

With enchanting dexterity, Lin May Saeed transforms ordinary, inexpensive materials into something sublime. Far from monumental, their “provisional” aesthetic turns away from traditional production and preservation techniques: marble or bronze are replaced by sculpted polystyrene blocks.*

*Joe Scotland, Director, Studio Voltaire

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Art : Concept is pleased to present Andrew Lewis’s fifth solo exhibition, Au Bonheur des femmes (The Women’s Delight).

With this new series, based on Emile Zola’s novel Au Bonheur des dames (The Ladies’ Delight), the British artist continues his reflection on the renewal and relevance of genre painting.

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Art : Concept is pleased to present a new solo show by Julien Audebert.

“Man is this night, this empty nothingness that contains everything in the simplicity of this night, a wealth of representations, infinitely multiple images, none of which precisely come to mind […]. It’s this night that we discover when we look into a man’s eyes – we plunge our gaze into a night that becomes frightening, it’s the night of the world that comes forward here to meet each and every one of us.”*

In his new series entitled La nuit du monde, Julien Audebert translates the philosopher’s nocturnal thought. Hegel developed the idea of thought as a passage between two nights: the one from which we must extract ourselves to gain knowledge, and the more perilous one into which we must plunge again at the end of the mind’s journey.

By painting these portraits on copper, Julien Audebert creates a circulation in which this meaning of passage is embedded.
The portrait is built around two holes, the result of an action by the artist who, through this breakthrough, explores the limits of representation and the materiality of his support. Through this gesture, the void becomes the place where the artist’s gaze and that of the viewer meet.

*Friedrich Hegel

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We are pleased to announce Nina Childress’ first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Artist’s page on our website

Nina Childress