GUILLAUME BRESSON

Posted on 2019-06-10

Considered to be one of the most singular French painters of his generation, Guillaume Bresson presents a group of recent paintings realized in his New York studio. These attest to the evolution of his work from hyperrealistic street scenes to more imaginary territories. Via a system of representation derived from the teachings of Italian Renaissance and French Classicism, Guillaume Bresson portrays contemporary subjects—his striking depictions of society shift toward a form of oneiric lyricism, which, rather than rejecting the social world, transfigures it.

The corps-a-corps, a constant theme in Guillaume Bresson’s oeuvre, is presented across a variety of settings that are more or less identifiable, more or less familiar or abstract: suburbia, a laundromat, the domestic environment of a kitchen, snowy woods that recall Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s wintry landscapes, a stormy sea.

Opposite – Sans titre, 2019

Exhibition runs through to June 29th, 2019

Galerie Nathalie Obadia
3 rue du Cloître Saint-Merri
75004 Paris

www.nathalieobadia.com

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MAGNUS PLESSEN

Posted on 2019-06-10

Magnus Plessen creates works that combine diverse painterly methods and approaches to reality (systems of representation) within an image. The limbs of the figures are generally outlined fragmentarily, while the hands are freely sketched and placed within an otherwise undeveloped plane in a way reminiscent of a sculptor’s preparatory or volumetric sketch. Other elements approximate reality, whereby the artist attempts to achieve what amounts to the impossible in the medium of painting, namely an imprint of the real. Still other areas are painted with free brushstrokes. What most of these painterly methods have in common is that the paint is partially removed and taken back by being scraped with a palette knife, wiped with a cloth, removed with sticky tape or rubbed with printing paper.

Opposite – Untitled (Rotation), 2019

Exhibition runs through to August 3rd, 2019

Mai 36 Galerie
Rämistrasse 37
CH-8001 Zürich
Switzerland

www.mai36.com

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DERRICK ADAMS

Posted on 2019-06-10

A continuation of Adams’ Deconstruction Worker series (2010–), the constructed portraits depict the everyday with a style drawn from Modernism and the idealized and exaggerated forms of traditional African sculpture, also taking inspiration from contemporary pop culture and vernacular scenes from the artist’s life. Rendered in a cubist style, the subjects are framed by abstracted city streets on which miniature model automobiles break free of the two-dimensional plane. The city grid speaks to the paradox of movement and progress—both individual and collective—within the confines of existing paths. Whether posed or caught in motion, the subjects are surrounded by an environment that adjusts to accommodate each individual. For Adams, the works suggest that “we are who we are because our presence is strong enough to also inform the spaces we occupy.”

With this work, Adams continues his ongoing project of creating space to imagine alternative narratives; he seeks to empower his viewers with fulfillment and dignity, proposing that awareness of one’s own cultural capital can be foundational to Black autonomy.

Opposite – Figure in the Urban Landscape 34, 2019

Exhibition runs through to July 6th, 2019

Rhona Hoffman Gallery
1711 West Chicago Avenue
60622 Chicago
USA

www.rhoffmangallery.com

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