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5/9/2007

Mircea Cantor

Yvon Lambert, New York

A Free Smile

New York, NY, May 8, 2007 — Yvon Lambert New York is pleased to announce the gallery’s second exhibition of work by Romanian, Paris-based artist Mircea Cantor. A selection of new works will be installed at the West 21st Street gallery. The exhibition will be on view from September 6 through October 1, 2007. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm. The opening reception with the artist will be held at the gallery on Thursday, September 6 from 6 to 8 pm.

With this exhibition titled A free smile, Mircea Cantor continues to investigate the conventions of image and object making in numerous materials, from molded terracotta to ripped newspaper. The exhibition features the artist’s first 16mm film, Shadow For a While, (2007), a two minute black-and-white film projection that shows the shadow cast by an anonymous flag burning into invisibility. A different act of disappearance is rendered in With a Free Smile (2007), a coin bank made from terracotta shaped like a human coffin. With this piece, viewers are encouraged to drop donations into the slot.

In the main gallery, Cantor utilizes existing household items and expands his ongoing interest in the semantic dimensions and symbolism of mundane materials. The front page of the newspaper becomes The New Times (2007). Placed inside a large Petri dish, the work’s fragility and rarity are accentuated. Nearby on the gallery wall candle smoke spells out Cielo Variable (2007), a message for the Spanish speaking audiences that echoes the uncertainties raised by the U.S. immigration debate. In Rosace (2007), Cantor delineates a rose window using soda can ashtrays that he purchased from Romanian street vendors in Paris.

The diversity of these pieces is typical of Cantor’s practice as he shifts between processes, from drawing to sculpture, from film to inverted codes. The artist’s trademark ambiguity is ever present lest we forget that immigration, national identity, and wealth are pressing issues worldwide. These works highlight the disintegration of borders, the successes and failings of globalization, a world with a sky that is indeed variable to many of its inhabitants. Cantor questions what is penetrable: a nation, an identity, or meaning?

Yvon Lambert - New location
550 West 21st Street - New york
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm

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