16/3/2007
Carl D'Alvia
G-module, Paris
By exploring numerous polarities, this New-York based sculptor juggles the extreme and the absurd, tenderness and dark humour. D'Alvia creates fake fur that covers all types of figures, namely animals, but also anthropomorphic or even abstract bodies. Under this fictional coat, his sculptures express an introspection close to hermetism, both intense and ironical.
Natura Artis Magistra
g-module is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition of Carl D'Alvia in Paris. By exploring numerous polarities, this New-York based sculptor juggles the extreme and the absurd, tenderness and dark humour. D'Alvia creates fake fur that covers all types of figures, namely animals, but also anthropomorphic or even abstract bodies. Under this fictional coat, his sculptures express an introspection close to hermetism, both intense and ironical.
g-module will present works of diverse scales realized in colored resin, as well as a selection of drawings further approaching the artist's iconographic research.
This research focuses on two apparently opposed themes: the zoological group that could originally be found in animated films – muskrats, monkeys, rabbits, etc.; and, the collection of geometric bodies used by the different schools of concrete and minimalist sculpture: cubes, boards oscillating between 2d and 3d, volumes sometimes indefinable... These two thematic groups merge under the very same layer of thick and opaque fur.
A perturbing mixture of tenderness and irony permeates D'Alvia's work, in which a minimalist gesture and a narrative approach converge, producing unusual, yet seductive sculptures and drawings. The synthesis of appearing and hiding gives place to paradoxical works: abstract and animal bodies are veiled, so that their identities can only be guessed.
Always covering the entire figure, the fur obstructs our perception. The impossibility to see these figures clearly feeds the desire to touch them. The hardness of resin makes evident that one cannot penetrate appearance.
Carl D'Alvia's œuvre
could be interpreted from two perspectives: as a parodic approach to concrete language and as the insertion of minimalist vocabulary into a pop discourse, where falsification joins tenderness.
Carl D'Alvia (1965) lives and works in New York.
next: Double-Edged Abstraction: May 12 –July 7
For further information, please contact us at presse@g-module.com. Images available upon request.
g-module
15, rue Debelleyme 75003 Paris