ART CITIES:Paris-Openings 8/10/16
If Abstract Expressionism continues to dominate the Los Angeles art scene, numerous artists have also decided to tread the path of a form of Minimalism in which light is an inseparable part of their practice. A new generation of artists has adopted the principles of simplicity by using contemporary materials that provide the opportunity for experiences in which light and colour are juxtaposed and combine to elevate our perspective of their work. Brian Wills, a young, Los Angeles-based artist whose his first solo show in Paris “New Works”, is presented at Praz Delavallade, has completely taken on board this ideology of the relationship between the space and the spectator. Adopting Mies van der Rohe’s motto “Less is more”, his work is characterised by simple, smooth, pared-down geometric shapes that lend themselves to a physical form of appreciation. Each work is a long-term endeavour that leads to a level of sophistication which reveals Brian Wills’ craftsmanship, but in which the artist’s hand seems almost to have been replaced by an industrial mechanism. Brian Wills ingeniously uses nylon threads and iridescent or gloss paint in order to arrive at works with perfect lines, both simple and complex, but only the slightest imperfections can be discerned on the dermis the gloss paint surface of his works onto which the threads are fixed. Info: Praz-Delavallade Galerie, 5 Rue Des Haudriettes, Paris, Duration: 8/10-10/11/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.praz-delavallade.com
“Berenice Abbot / Vivian Maier – a fantastic passion” explores connection between these two utterly different women. Berenice Abbott sought out the light, while Vivian Maier hid amongst the shadows. One indefatigably knocked on every door in order to get her projects off the ground, the other criss-crossed the globe on her own. Beyond their particular predilections, however, they were united by the same passion to document the real. They both lived without compromises, nothing and no one could get in the way of their vision. What they have left us are two singular bodies of work that are imbued with a spirit of freedom. Born in Springfield Ohio, Berenice Abbott posed nude for Man Ray when she was his assistant in Paris. It was Man Ray who taught her the arts of portraiture and of the dark room, and through him she met Eugène Atget, one of her neighbours.. At his death, she purchased a number of his works, later selling them to the MoMA in New York in 1968. Vivian Maier was born New York and died in Chicago. In between, she and her French mother visited the department of Hautes-Alpes, and in 1932 the valley of Champsaur. Her all-consuming passion was photography, which she engaged in with utmost discretion. She set about photographing the streets of New York and Chicago. She also created a series of self-portraits that reveal her uncommon eye, she plays with reflections almost to the point of obsession, at times bordering on fear. The self-taught photographer who earned her living as a governess: she refused to step out of the shadows. Complete anonymity. During an auction in Chicago in 2007, John Maloof, one of the main buyers, paid $400 for boxes and suitcases that had belonged to Miss Maier. They contained between 100,000 and 150,000 negatives, plus 3,000 prints and hundreds of undeveloped Ektachrome rolls. Quantity has never been a measure of talent, but what Maloof had in his hands, in conjunction with the material from Jeffrey Goldstein and Ron Slattery, was the stuff of dreams. From 2007 to the present day, there has been a constant quest to discover the real Vivian Maier. Info: Les Douches-La Galerie, 5 Rue Legouvé, Paris, Duration 8/10-2/11/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 14:00-19:00, www.lesdoucheslagalerie.com
Roger Vilder’s concern is centered around concepts of time and motion throughout his works. For him, movement implies change, mutation from one state to another on the physical, metaphysical, psychological, individual or group and the evolution of forms in their proportions, colors and textures. His first digital research dates from 1971. They lead to animated sequences. In 1973, he made a series of computer drawings at the National Meteorological Center of Canada. From these drawings, several serial sculptures and graphic were carried out. In 2005, an opportunity was offered to him to create some algorithms from his initial computer drawings. Faithful to his original concerns of time and motion applied in his kinetic works, he explores compositions of geometrical shapes, in black and white and in colors, on screen, in a continuous motion, random or repetitive. In applying these algorithms on touch screen, it allows the viewer to intervene by enlarging, reducing, moving or fixing the image. In doing so, compositions appear on the screen, thereby synthesizing various researchs of many artists of the 20th Century. Info: Nery Marino Gallery, 8, Rue Des Coutures Saint Gervais, Paris, Duration: 8/10-26/11/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 13:00-18:00, http://artameriquelatine.com