calendario eventi  :: 

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5/10/2009

Two exhibitions

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac - Marais, Paris

Francesco Clemente
Jigsaw puzzle
(drawing space)

"The images present themselves quickly, in a rushed, hectic, vivid, urgent way. I make raw ink drawings to remember what I see, and then that becomes like a music score."
- Francesco Clemente

After showing Francesco Clemente's work at our Salzburg gallery in 2004 and 2007, we are very pleased to announce his first solo exhibition of works on paper.
Francesco Clemente is one of the most renowned international artists who revitalized figurative painting with the emergence of the Neo-Expressionist movement in the late 1970s early 80s. Clemente's unique style combines the tradition of Indian imagery, the Romanticism of William Blake and of Italian Renaissance frescoes to make evocative and powerful works in a sensuous palette.

In this exhibition, the artist will present 21 new pastels and watercolors, all in the form of a puzzle piece, installed to create a mosaic of poetic, colorful figurative images, which do not necessarily reveal a whole picture. As in much of his work, Clemente makes references to non-Western symbols, myth and spirituality, astrology and the four elements, sexuality and senses, as well as dream-like visions.

Francesco Clemente was born in 1952 in Naples. From 1970 he studied architecture at the University of Rome, and began to exhibit his drawings, photographs and conceptual works in Europe. From 1973, he travelled regularly to India, and in 1981 he moved to New York. Since the mid-80s, Clemente's work has been the subject of many exhibitions: in the Berlin National Gallery (1984/85), Basel Museum of Contemporary Art (1987), Philadelphia Museum of Art (1990), Royal Academy of Arts, London (1991), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1994/95), Guggenheim Museum, New York (1999/2000), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004), the National Archaeology Museum, Naples (2002/03) and the National Museum of XXIst Century Art, Rome (2006). A major exhibition of Clemente's oeuvre is currently on view at the MADRE (Contemorary Art Museum DonnaRegina) in Naples, until 12 October 2009.

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Terence Koh
Adansonias
October 6 - November 14, 2009

"Often vying between minimalist and baroque sensibilities, Koh's absorbing monochromatic environments and delicately crafted sculptures stage sites of some unknown ritual, where a sense of loss suggests regeneration. The work plays on the melancholic beauty and sublime transcendence of emptiness, evocations of darkness that create our isolated worlds, and the intertwining of life and death."
- Shamim M. Momin

Terence Koh is currently living in Paris to prepare his first solo show at the gallery, which will take the form of an imaginary opera in eight acts. The first act will take place on October 6 and the eighth act will be during the FIAC, on October 22. Throughout the weeks building up to the opening, he will be drawing from the city's architecture, atmosphere and sensuality to compose this experimental tragic opera and to create drawings, collages and photographs around the yet unperformed scenes of this unorthodox production.

In his installations, objects, wall pieces, and performances, Terence Koh creates a space in which memory and imagination mix with art history and subculture. He explores such diverse subjects as mythology, religion, identity, power, fashion and sexuality, in an often provocative manner, charged with possible symbolic readings.

Known for his monochromatic installations, and ritualistic performances, Terence Koh will transform the ground floor of the gallery into an all-white set for an opera in which he will play the main character alongside eight white-clad performers. Within the story, loosely based on The Little Prince, we find elements from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and the French New Wave, punctuated by experimental live music and singing - Koh will play a piece of music composed using only the white keys of a piano (a reference to Anton Reicha, who used innovative methods of composition) - immersing the public into the artist's unique cosmos. Koh has invited surprise guest actors to perform on the opening night of the first act of Adansonias.

Terence Koh (born 1980 in Beijing, China) grew up in Mississauga, Canada and received his Bachelor degree from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver. He is currently living in New York City. In 2008, he was listed in Out magazine's "100 People of the Year", and was short listed for the SOBEY awards. He has exhibited widely around the United States and extensively abroad. Koh's work has been the subject of many outstanding solo exhibitions including Love for Eternity at the Musac in Leon, Spain (2008); Captain Buddha curated by Dr. Martina Weinhart, at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany (2008); at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, curated by Shamim Momin (2007); at the Kunsthalle in Zurich, Switzerland, curated by Beatrix Ruf (2006); Gone, Yet Still at the Wien Secession in Vienna, Austria (2005). He has also participated in a number of major group exhibitions such as The Collectors, by Elmgreen and Dragset at this year's Danish and Nordic Pavillons Venice Biennale, The Porn Identity at the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria (2009) and USA Today at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (2006).


Image: Francesco Clemente, Jigsaw 1.5, 2009. Pastel on paper 70 x 104 cm (27 11/16 x 41 1/16 in)

For futher information on this exhibition, please contact Victoire de Pourtalès, victoire@ropac.net, (+33 (0)1 42729900).
To obtain visual elements, please contact Zahra KH-Alam, zahra@ropac.net.
For press inquiries, please contact Alessandra Bellavita, alessandra@ropac.net.

Opening in the presence of the artists on Tuesday, October 6th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

Two performances by Terence Koh:
October 6 at 8pm
October 22 at 8pm

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
7 rue Debelleyme, 75003 Paris
Tuesday - Saturday, 10am-7pm

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