Artchipel

Di Jinjun (b.1978, China) - Sophisists Exhibition @ OFOTO

Di Jinjun’s series “Sophists” focuses on the witty people creative in literature, philosophy and art. Among them are people that I have long been respecting, attended lectures, read articles and worked with. Di Jinjun fixed their portraits on 25.4 x 30.5 cm aluminum plate emulsion by wet-plate photography. Hiding their eloquence in language and glory in the works, they become the game for another hunting photographer. Their own face signs are waiting wordlessly for other people to watch and analyze in a microscopic attitude. At this moment, they are not “sophistic” but really silent sophists. (essay: Chen Haiyan; translation: Fan Chen) Our sincere thanks to OFOTO Gallery for the warm reception.

SOPHISTS – Di Jinjun Photography Exhibition @ OFOTO Gallery
2F, Building 13, 50 Moganshan Rd., Shanghai, China
13.04-24.05.2013

[more Di Jinjun]

Hell’O Monsters (Belgium) 

Hell’O Monsters collective emerged in the late 1990s as a result of the meeting between Jerôme Meynen, François Dieltiens and Antoine Detaille. They quickly left behind wall art, graffiti letters and spray paint in favour of paper, characters, ink drawings and paint, moving on to sculpture, installations and wall drawing. They developed a unique graphic vocabulary that is complex and ambiguous, which they continue to expand in the course of their creative output, customising many recurrent elements, which they combine each time with new characters, or incorporate into unusual settings.

Hell’O Monsters Modern Ghost 2
in exhibition @ La galerie du jour agnès b.
28.03-25.05.2013

[more Hell’O Monsters]

François Bard (b.1959, France) 

For Bard, the simplest of all subjects, be it a shoe, a leg, a torso, a dog or a face, takes a dark and edgy turn. He manages to translate all his intimate emotion into a two dimensional oil painting; each work an endless exercise of composition, rhythm and struggle. The use of multiple layers of oil accentuates the feel and dynamic mood of all his paintings. François Bard gives a part of himself in every canvas. The horizon – the vast limiting of human experience – is fascinating to Bard. The horizon draws a line between here and not-here, day and night, good and evil, us and them. The scale and cinematic quality of his work only makes this more dramatic and stuns viewers over and over again.

Represented by Mazel Galerie @ Drawing Now 2013

[more François Bard]

Claire Fanjul (b.1986, Belgium)

The work of Claire Fanjul is placed under the sign of ambivalence. This young artist is steeped in the ancient culture and also mastered the traditional techniques such as engraving and etching. She draws her inspiration from the repertoire of primitive Flemish and German to shape her dreams and gives clearly a vision of the imagination of our century. Fanjul’s ink and line drawings have a dark edge with twisted characters, faces and fauna intertwined in a tapestry that tells its own story.

Represented by Mazel Galerie @ Drawing Now 2013

[more Claire Fanjul]

Tumblr Monday 103

H. Craig Hanna (b.1967, USA) 

Born in 1967 in Cleveland USA, H. Craig Hanna is a New York painter from Fine Arts Syracuse University, Fine Arts School of Visual Arts, New York Academy of Figurative Art. He exhibited his work since age of 29 year and has received an immediate recognition. In 1998, an entire floor reserved for him at Bergdorf Goodman, following exhibitions in London, Hong Kong and Malta where he spent a period of his life. H. Craig Hanna currently lives and works in London and is represented in Paris by Laurence Esnol Gallery who shows his works permanently and exclusivity worldwide. Our thanks to Laurence Esnol Gallery for the warm reception and this beautiful discovery.

in exhibition @ Laurence Esnol Gallery | on Tumblr

[more H. Craig Hanna | Tumblr Monday with Laurence Esnol Gallery]

Ethan Murrow (USA)

Ethan Murrow’s obsessively rendred drawings based on collaborative performances. Artist works with others whose ideas and contributions influence, inform and guide him: “This process began when my wife Vita Weinstein Murrow began filming, photographing and directing me in performances in 2004. Since then we have often worked as a duo, making short videos together. Often, the still imagery we collect forms the source material for large-scale graphite drawings that are obsessive documents of infatuated characters.” Despite a focus on working with others, the characters in recent narratives have been consistently averse to criticism and assistance. These figures, mostly male, are doomed to failure and prone to dysfunction.

Represented by La Galerie Particulière @ Drawing Now 2013

[more Ethan Murrow]

Gregory Markovic (France)

Grégory Markovic’s skies come from a dual research: the descriptive of a nature in constant renewal, but also the projection of our own passions. Because, paradoxically, the clouds are materialized by subtracting materials: black charcoal thickly applied on the entire surface of the white paper, then brushed and unified, then partially erased, sanded, removed to reveal the sensation of a pattern. Forms arise from the darkness, the artist “goes deeply into the light.”

Represented by La Galerie Particulière @ Drawing Now 2013

[more Gregory Markovic]

Gilles Balmet (b.1979, France)

Born in La Tronche, currently lives and works in Paris and Grenoble, Gilles Balmet is painter, drawer, filmmaker and photographer. He’s been recently focusing on works on paper and canvas, between abstraction and figuration, questionning the notion of landscape, the role of the viewer in image analysis, the notions of mastering and serendipity, of order and chaos, and the links between painting and photography. The series Silver mountains, a balance between abstraction and representations of landscapes, combines drawing, painting, chemical and physical reactions from opposite matters, movements and varied manipulations on papers.

Represented by Médiathèque Marguerite Duras @ Drawing Now 2013

[more Gilles Balmet]

Marsha Cottrell (USA)

Brooklyn-based artist Marsha Cottrell creates deft, intricate drawings of stellar landscapes, imaginary worlds floating light years away. ”The first landscape images in art I connected with as a young person were da Vinci’s “deluge” drawings,” she told Review Interview earlier this year. I was attracted to the idea that they were not representations of actual places, but eternal/internal landscapes that might be found anywhere at any moment in time. Their energy, architecture, and intricacy - but not rigidity - always appealed to me. They seemed to present an open platform with which to interact, and I’ve always aspired for my own work operate in a similar way.” Indeed, the works project space and wonder while also maintaing a strange kind of familiarity, the gaps filled in by your own mind. (sc. Flavorwire)

Represented by Petra Rink Galerie @ Drawing Now 2013

[more Marsha Cottrell]

INVITATION

Renaud Buvry (b.1973, France) - en exposition @ 4 éléments

Vous voici dans le monde de Renaud Buvry, un univers pictural riche en émotions et en saveurs pigmentées ! A travers des œuvres engagées, Renaud Buvry partage avec nous ses aventures intérieures par une mise en scène de couleurs subtiles de revendications…celles d’un homme libre.

Vernissage le mercredi 3 avril à 19h - 149 rue Amelot Paris 11e
2 artistes de la scène Parisienne lui donneront la réplique en musique :
Marie Prieux & Fred de Clerc

[more Renaud Buvry]

Tumblr Artist

Matthew Knight | on Tumblr (UK/Ireland)

The Face behind the skin. Acrylic on Canvas (2010)
I hate Giraffes (2012)

Matthew Knight was born in Cambridge, England and now is living and working in sunny Belfast, Ireland. Over the years he met the oddest and most interes…ting characters, seen and experienced some bizarre sights, been bombarded with way too many different beliefs and ideals, and to end it all eaten and smelt God knows what. Frankly its confusing, chaotic and complicated trying to make sense of it all. All of these experiences go into his paintings. His characters and scenes are bursting with crazy colours and complicated detail drawing influences from all sorts of artistic disciplines, Islamic, Celtic, Aboriginal, Pointillism, Lowbrow, Comics, etc… He works mostly in Acrylic with collage on all sorts of found surfaces.

Matthew is an up and coming artist to watch out for. He currently exhibits @ GO Galley Amsterdam (1st Dec 2012 to 16th Jan 2013). Please visit his website or follow his Tumblr for more work.

[more Matthew Knight | currently in exhibition @ GO Galley Amsterdam]

INVITATION

Maïssa Toulet - en exposition Le cabinet des sciences curieuses

20 déc. 2012 au 18 janv. 2013
avec Maïssa Toulet - Vincent Pianina - Lorenzo Papace
Galerie Michel Lagarde - 3 rue Bouchardon Paris 10ème
Vernissage le mercredi 19 décembre à 19h

[more MaÏssa Toulet]

INVITATION

Kouka - L’Enfant Métis en exposition

du 14 déc. 2012 au 20 janv. 2013
New Heart City Gallery - 10 rue de Picardie Paris 3ème
Vernissage vendredi 14 décembre à 19h

[more Kouka]

Maud Vantours (b.1985, France) - Paper sculptures Botany (2012)

[more Maud Vantours | currently in exhibition @ Voskel]