gogoparis.com » Art

Vava Dudu ‘Ambiance’ at 12Mail

kvdb — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:11:44 +0000

Vava Dudu is a fashion designer, singer (La Chatte) and hyperactive Paris artiste (recently in the press for her designs picked up by international fashion maven Lady Gaga for her clip Bad Romance!); she’s brought her freakshow up out of the underground for a solo show at the exciting new gallery space 12Mail until 10 Sep.
Until 10 Sep. Wed-Fri, 2-6pm. 12 rue du Mail, 2nd.
www.12mail.fr/

Jack Pierson at Thaddaeus Ropac

kvdb — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:31:00 +0000

“Certain words aren’t good when you describe an artwork – like ’sentimental’, ‘romantic’, ‘poetic’ and ‘pretty’. But those are my favourite qualities of anything.” says Jack Pierson, at Ropac for his fifth solo show. The American artist is one of ‘Boston Five’, a group of photographers who met in art school in the 70s (David Armstrong, Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisoe , and Philip-Lorca DiCorcia). His practice embodies an array of media spanning from wall-drawings, word-pieces, installations, drawings, paintings and photographs. For this exhibition, he has chosen to show a series of nine ink drawings of Roman Emperor, Hadrian’s lover, the young and beautiful Antinous, after whom Hadrian named the Egyptian city of Antinopolis and had several statues made of his effigy, deifying this Greek youth who mysteriously drowned in the Nile. In conjunction to these works, he has worked on a series of large-format drawings on rough canvas, in which Pola Negri, the femme fatale of 1920s and 30s silent movies, is the protagonist. Pierson is interested in her darkness and the personae of the actress for whom the barrier between the public realm and the private sphere was practically inexistent. Pierson is a sort of archaeologist of life, past and present, in which every one of his works tells a story of love, desire, loss, hope and loneliness.
Until 30 July.
7 rue Debelleyme, 3rd. www.ropac.net/

William Kentridge and Bruno Serralongue at Jeu de Paume

s.nellis — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:46:42 +0000

The Jeu de Paume presents an interesting double-bill this summer. Upstairs is the first retrospective in France of renowned South African artist, William Kentridge. Based on the broad themes that have interested Kentridge since the 1980s, this retrospective includes the short animated films based on everyday life under apartheid, which brought him international recognition in the 1990s, a number of self-portaits which explore the artistic process, and his most recent absurdist works based on Shostakovich’s opera The Nose. Both funny and engaging, this comprehensive exhibition highlights the broad scope of Kentridge’s artistic practice and diversity of media. (In parallel to the exhibition here, the neighbouring Louvre is presenting drawings by Kentridge in counterpoint to works selected from their graphic arts collection, as well as a video created especially for the exhibition, screened in the Egyptian Antiquities room. Denon Wing, 1st floor, room 33 / Sully Wing, 1st floor, room 26, until 30 Aug.) Also on at the Jeu de Paume is an exhibition featuring recent work from French photographer Bruno Serralongue. His photographs of manifestations, social struggles and both political and festive gatherings – from a Johnny Halliday concert in Las Vegas to the sans papiers movement in Paris to present-day Kosovo – challenge both our notions of photojournalism and the way that such events are portrayed in the media.
Until 5 Sep
www.jeudepaume.org

Invisible Mending (still), from 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès, 2003

William Kentridge

JC de Castelbajac ‘Astronomy Domine’

kvdb — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:47:23 +0000

Only two more weeks to see fashion designer JC de Castelbajac’s cosmic installation ‘Astronomy Domine’ (btw, also the name of a Pink Floyd song, written by Syd Barrett) commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry IV’s death. Castelbajac has installed a neon frame around an existing equestrian sculpture of Henry IV on the Pont Neuf, and also placed a lightsaber in the King’s hand. Below is a video of the official inauguration from 14 May, presided over Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterand.
Until 14 July.

Anish Kapoor for Monumenta 2011

kvdb — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:22:16 +0000

For its fourth edition – after commissions by Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra and Christian Boltanski earlier this year – Monumenta invites UK artist Anish Kapoor to invest the 13,500 m2 nave of the Grand Palais. Kapoor proved his capacity to respond to that sort of scale back in 2002, producing a magnificent monumental sculpture for the Tate Modern’s Unilever Series, pictured here.
13 May-20 June 2011
www.monumenta.com/

‘Perspectives’ at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton

kvdb — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:50:41 +0000

For the first time, the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton is concentrating on just two artists: gothic Paris-based architect Odile Decq, who has been in the press lately for her extension of Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art, is head to head with artist Camille Henrot, pre-selected for this year’s Marcel Duchamp contemporary art prize. Sixteen works, primarily new works, offer an attempt to understand space and the world by means of a twofold view. Fascinated by the horizon, Odile Decq has designed three installations combining steel, metal or glass, which all present a challenge to our perception. Through video, sculpture, drawing, engraving, photography, weaving, Camille Henrot explores travel and its misunderstandings, the impossible comprehension of the other. Odile Decq transforms the exhibition into a ship or a plane and Camille Henrot into a sort of museum of man.
Until 5 Sep.
www.louisvuitton.com/espaceculturel

‘Dynasty’ at Palais de Tokyo & MAM

m.osucha — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:58:14 +0000

Together, neighbouring art institutions the Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d’Art Moderne present this massive survey of the up-and-coming generation (under 35 years old) of artists working in France today. Forty artists each present one work (of every technique and style, including painting, video and sculpture) in each museum, creating a powerful experience in stereo, and this summer’s blockbuster show! As well as promoting emerging French art, the show becomes an interesting demonstration of the impact of the museum space and the hanging choices on the experience of viewing an exhibition too, as despite seeing 40 works by the same artists in twin buildings, the two exhibitions have totally different outcomes.
Opening tomorrow, until 5 Sep.
www.palaisdetokyo.com

Jason Dodge at La Galerie, Noisy-le-sec

c.rossiter — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:18:32 +0000

The quirky oeuvre of Berlin based, American artist Jason Dodge (represented by Yvon Lambert, here in Paris) appears minimalist: a carefully folded length of fabric, a copper pipe, strips of paper spelling out a name, a dead owl… But where Minimalism emphasises interaction with the viewer and the minimalist object refers to nothing beyond its own materiality, Jason Dodge’s works are often the reduction of a complex backstory. His solo exhibition at La Galerie, Noisy-le-Sec (easily accessible from Gare du Nord), is wordily but aptly titled: ‘I woke up. There was a note in my pocket explaining what had happened’. Dodge doesn’t describe his work as ‘performance’, as it is the objects he chooses to display, not their stories. But the potential energy of these objects is important – the fact that a minimal-looking piece is representative of a story that has passed or that may come to pass. The fabric, for example, was commissioned by the artist in different countries (Algeria, Germany, Turkey) to be the length of the distance from the earth to the troposphere (12km) and that it be the colour of night. The mysterious strips of paper, it turns out, are messages brought by carrier pigeons from one city to another and reassembled on arrival. Another piece, Your death, submarine, looks to be simply a shiny pipe. But the pipe is directly linked to the mains water supply. A note around the neck of the pipe reads ‘BUILD A GREAT AQUARIUM’, conjuring up images of the gallery space submerged with a flick of the stop cock.
Until 24 July
La Galerie, 1 rue Jean-Jaurès, 93130 Noisy-le-Sec. www.noisylesec.fr

Your death, submarine, 2009

Above the weather, 2008

Be the moss-dim yellow light if only by electric (détail), 2010

Jeff Koons for BMW Art Car

kvdb — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:56:01 +0000

Since 1975, BMW has occasionally invited artists to use its cars as canvases; in 1979 Warhol painted an M1 Group 4 racer, and the collection now counts 17 BMW Art Cars. For the 25th anniversary of the project, Jeff Koons unleashed his creativity on a BMW M3 GTS, and the oeuvre was presented to the public in Paris on Tuesday at the Centre Pompidou. You can see the car in action on 12-13 June, outside Paris for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Sonia Rykiel Dessins at Galerie Catherine Houard

m.hicks — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:08:05 +0000

The best living example of a hair colour only (some) French women can get away with, flaming Left-Bank legend Sonia Rykiel wants to be known for more than stripes, knits, and dye-drenched locks. The doyenne of Paris tricot will unveil over 200 drawings on Saturday at Galerie Catherine Houard in – where else? – St Germain des Prés.. They look like just the kind of squiggly, stained, and spontaneous little sketches you’d imagine a designer dashing off but, like Rykiel’s much copied hue, fresh and dynamic nonetheless.
4 June-24 July
Galerie Catherine Houard, 15 rue Saint-Benoît. 6th. 09 54 20 21 49