ART CITIES:Paris-Heroes

The question of the exhibition “Heroes” is “Who are the heroes of contemporary drawings and artists? And what do they say about us and our world?” This title/theme with martial overtones punctuates the history of the arts: from the wall paintings of acts of bravery to the portraits of the powerful of the Renaissance, from the celebrities in Warhol’s series to the superheroes of American comics, the figure of the hero travels through time and across media.

By Efi Michalarou

At first glance, the contemporary hero seems to have lost his panache and his powers, replaced by his febrile double, the antihero, over-represented in the artworks gathered together. At worst, he seems tired, at best, very discreet, without qualities. The comics artist Winshluss makes a White Man with the head of Toto evolve in a nocturnal and empty Tokyo. Overcome, battered, fragile, his giant looks like a loser, a zero. Pim Blokker offers a singular gallery of portraits. With a contrite air, feigned and as though bogged down, his models (man, woman, cloud, ghost, chimney…) seem ridiculous, if not absurd. Tragicomic, like the blackfaces and smileyfaces which form the large diptych by the American artist Richard Jackson, which question our duality. Masks are also present in the new series of collages by Martin Kersels, LP Series, never before shown in Paris. The Californian artist has covered a group of old record covers with a fine layer of wood. Only the singers’ eyes are visible. Incognito, they look at us looking at them. And if it is not the artist, it is people close to him, his references or his mentors who lead the way. Paul McCarthy takes a bite out of his Parisian art dealers in two drawings created on the occasion of the presentation of his monumental sculpture Innocence at the gallery in 1994. Jean Tinguely pays homage to his companion, the artist Niki de Saint Phalle, in a collage from 1989, which multiplies visual and biographical elements. Richard Prince, with the New Figures series, continues to cloud the issue, redrawing printed images excerpted from old erotic magazines, the bodies, faces and genitals of anonymous heroines, with a distinct Picasso-infused style. Participating Artists: Gilles Barbier, Julien Berthier, Pim Blokker, Richard Jackson, Martin Kersels, Lamarche-Ovize, Paul McCarthy, Theo Michael, Lucie Picandet, Richard Prince, Jean Tinguely and Winshluss

Info: Curator: The Drawer (Barbara Soyer & Sophie Toulouse), Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, 36 rue de Seine, Paris, Duration: 19/2-2/4/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00, www.galerie-vallois.com