For his first New York solo exhibition, Lamouroux will be creating a new floor installation for the entire area of the gallery space. The 'Sol' pieces are constructed from a specially cut wooden understructure overlaid with flexible plywood sheets. They create an otherworldly new floor for a space that undulates in peaks and troughs, resembling a swelling wave frozen in motion.
'Sol', one of Vincent Lamouroux's disorienting wavelike plywood floors was the hit of last December's Art Basel Miami Beach art fair, where it was installed in our 'Art Positions' container. For his first New York solo exhibition, Lamouroux will be creating a new floor installation for the entire area of the gallery space.
The 'Sol' pieces are constructed from a specially cut wooden understructure overlaid with flexible plywood sheets. They create an otherworldly new floor for a space that undulates in peaks and troughs, resembling a swelling wave frozen in motion. They make us acutely aware of our own bodies as we negotiate their surfaces, taking up Bataille's notion of the foot as conduit of a reconnection to our own physicality. And in their defiant impracticality, they also offer an alternative to the market forces that increasingly define architectural space.
Lamouroux's installation at Spencer Brownstone has been developed with close attention to the existing structure of the gallery. Beginning around 'ground' level at the front of the space, the floor will dip and rise on its way toward the partition wall at the back of the space, where it reaches a crest, allowing the viewer to peer over the wall. The piece has a spellbinding effect, transforming our perception of our surroundings and encouraging us to interact with the environment with renewed self-consciousness.
Vincent Lamouroux was born in 1974 in Saint Germain-en-Laye and lives and works in Paris. In 2003, he was the recipient of a residency award at Location 1 in New York. Lamouroux has had a solo exhibition at the Project Room, Paris, and the artist's work has been shown in group shows, including our booth at Art Basel Miami Beach; "De Notre Temps", Musée de Tourcoing, Tourcoing; "Maisons/Témoins" at The Store, Paris; "Oxymory" at FRAC Basse Normandie, Caen; "Mursollaici" at Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; and "Le Parc, Construction Inside/Out" at CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania.
OPENING APRIL 8th, 2004, 6-8pm
Vincent Lamouroux at Spencer Brownstone Gallery will run from April 8th through May 22nd.
Image: work in progress, March 26th
Spencer Brownstone Gallery
39 WOOSTER STREET NYC 10013
TEL 212.334.3455 FAX 212.274.1157