ART CITIES: Paris Openings 3/9/16

Élodie Lesourd presents her solo exhibition “Lazarus, Zombie, Elvis” at Galerie Lily Robert. Related to a critic and conceptual approach to painting, her work is also being established through the method of a semiotic analysis. Through “Lazarus, Zombie, Elvis”, Élodie Lesourd is questioning the idea of classification. Blending history of art, natural history and music, she tries to understand, and even to reveal the very origin of art. Embodying order, geometry brazenly encounters disorder of nature, allowing adolescent naturalists to dialogue with Barnett Newman, where the ephemeral is immobilized, the profane exults. Info: Galerie Lily Robert, 3 rue des Haudriettes, Paris, Duration: 3/9-15/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.lilyrobert.com

In addition to fluidly combining painting and sculpture, Eric Mack and Torey Thornton also share a visual language that explores spatial relationships and questions the gesture’s role in conceiving form in the exhibition “Extensions Made To Trouble Transformation”. Torey Thornton’s work oscillates between legibility and abstraction, resulting in atension that confuses our interpretation of pictorial arrangement. Utilizing common items, primarily textiles and other readymade objects, Eric Mack intervenes on these materials with paint and dye, creating a fusion of incongruous elements. Each artist challenges the limits of perception through surprising combinations of color and form, perspective and scale. Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 64 Rue de Turenne, Paris, Duration: 3/9-8/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com

Dominique Figarella, proposes his second solo exhibition at Gallery Anne Barrault. Committed to his demanding painting while working for cross-disciplinary projects, he recently has worked with Mathilde Monnier, a choreographer, to create “Soapéra”, shown in Centre Pompidou in Paris last spring. From dance to painting, this artwork illustrates the artist interest for the creative process and the issue of temporality in paint composition. In his recent paintings, with the same principle, he incorporates photographs of the painting in the making, raising the question of the relationship between each of these mediums and reality. Dominique Figarella likes the idea that the abstraction of his paintings is about nothing. This exhibition, like the rest of his work, is an opening on to this negativity, which concerns all of us. In that respect, his work is universal. Info: Gallery Anne Barrault, 51 rue des Archives, Paris, Duration: 3/9-15/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.galerieannebarrault.com

José Manuel Egea, has been fascinated with the figure of the lycanthrope, or the werewolf, since his childhood. Not only is he convinced of being one himself, but he seems to want to reveal to us, through his works, that the double monstrosity lies beneath the surface for many of us, if not all of us. This mythological creature is obviously the symbol of a blurry duality, but it embodies a great power at the same time, mysterious, and capable of exerting an influence on mankind, of inspiring fear in him. In the exhibition “lycanthropos” José Manuel Egea gives himself over to liberating play since, even though he mangles our humanity, by freeing himself from the norm, he reveals the grandeurs of alterity to us in a pure and unrestrained artistic gesture. Info: Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery, 3-5 passage des Gravilliers,  (entrance by 10, rue chapon), Paris, Duration: 3/9-15/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 14:00-19:00, www.christianberst.com

Gallery Thomas Bernard-Cortex Athletico celebrates 10 years since its opening in Bordeaux. The exhibition “The Past is the Past”, is the occasion to revisit various moments. Here, all its collaborations and all its experiences are not represented, but suggested. Thus, far from elaborating an aim of the exhibition, it is about convoking different works, with the distinguishing feature of having been shown during their history in Bordeaux. All these artists are familiar with the different spaces the gallery has occupied, whether it be those of Bordeaux or more recently in Paris. Info: Galerie Thomas Bernard-Cortex Athletico, 13 rue des Arquebusiers, Paris, Duration: 3/9-15/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:30-19:00, www.galeriethomasbernard.com

Laura Porter’s works are composed of common, rudimentary elements in offhand iterations often building-up towards some creeping figure. Several aspects of Laura Porter’s native New Orleans culture come up in her work, they appear regularly as interchangeable units. “The “Future of Dry”, Laura Porter’s first solo exhibition at the gallery Escougnou-Cetraro opens with images from a “Food Amounts Booklet”, a brochure distributed to subjects in studies and used as a standard of measurement in quantifying their fat intake. Ceramic “Mound” food standards meet with other measures, such as a coin used to assess the size of plants or a medical table divided into chunks. Info: Galerie Escougnou-Cetraro 7 rue Saint-Claude, Paris, Duration: 3-29/9/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 14:00-19:00, http://escougnou-cetraro.fr