ART REVIEW:Iván Argote-Deep Affection

“Deep Affection” is entitled Iván Argote’s solo exhibition, the artist was born in 1983 in Bogota and currently lives and works in Paris. This title seems to provoke the exhibition, from the first moment since the artworks tend to overturn it. As you enter the gallery a huge video projection shoots at the visitor’s face a series of denials and an intense negative-unpleasant energy, in parallel the paved with slabs in the color of the earth Galerie Perrotin’s floor refers to a cemetery. It’s like the artist mouth off to visitor and chuckles (!) You first desire is to turn your back and leave. But instead, if you continue to the other spaces of the Gallery, bypassing your primary emotions, armed with patience, you will discover a series of paintings, prints and sculptures of smaller dimensions, much quieter and more silent that offset the negative balance of your emotions. These artworks evoke much more interest and explain why this contradiction occurs, because it creates a new balance on which the whole exhibition is structured and evolves. As a final word, on your exit, you are wondering: why the young artists are digging up old and obsolete practices with new media and aesthetics? What is their benefit? Especially for the visitor which falls into repetitions.-Efi Michalarou

Info: Galerie Perrrotin, 76 rue de Turenne, Paris, Duration: 2-28/8/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.perrotin.com