MIRAGES XLVII

Qiu Shihua, Untitled, 2012, Oil on canvas, 130 x 179 cm, Signed and dated in Chinese on the lower left side: “Qiu Shihua, 2012”, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Karsten Greve
Qiu Shihua, Untitled, 2012, Oil on canvas, 130 x 179 cm, Signed and dated in Chinese on the lower left side: “Qiu Shihua, 2012”, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Karsten Greve

For me September was always a month of great changes, but also of great expectations. Truly New Year (!) And like all the new ones, September contains expectation, the joy of creativity and, at the same time the nervousness facing the new. Trying to cover all the above in a new startup, I am picking up the thread from the past, completing a creative circle in Greece with a book that will be published very soon, initiating a series of editions by dreamideamachine publications, opening a new circle of  creativity and life in Paris.

In a Paris that is full of exhibitions: all the galleries in Belleville filled with people on Thursday 6/9, and the same happened in Le Marais on Saturday 8/9, while on Sunday 23/9, most of the Galleries will be open 12:00-18:00 for the Un Dimanche Àla GAlerie, an event that is held for the 4th consecutive year.

The exhibitions that we have distinguished so far and we propose them to you are: “Athos-The Colours of Faith” at Galerie Intervalle, in which the Greek photographer Stratos Kalafatis acts as a frame grabber for the society of Mount Athos with a contemporary and extremely intrigue eye. Mark Geffriaud’s solo exhibition “Une certaine douceur en prime” at gb agency gallery, where the purity and the masterful way that the artwork unfolds in the gallery, creating a space in between, is a great and pleasant surprise. At Marian Goodman Gallery, the works of Fred Sandback in the exhibition “Le Fil d’Occam”, reconstruct the architectural settings of the space and create a new dimension of time through the vertical yarns that are set in the Gallery with geometric consistency, while the exhibition extends to another space of the Gallery, rarely open for exhibitions, that seems to be outside the Gallery, since its architecture takes us into the deep past. Quite interesting are Vik Munik’s artworks in his solo exhibition “Handmade” that is on presentation at Xippas Gallery, since they are the result of a hybrid process combining painting or collage and high-resolution digital photography, different from what we have been used to so far.In the exhibition “Impressions”, the strict off-white that dominates Qiu Shihuha ‘s large canvases at Galerie Karsten Greve,  looks like a path through the inner light to infinity, in some visitors creates euphoria that for some creates euphoria as in myself, while others are surprised or even frighten. But the exhibition that touches the whole spectrum of the audience is “Acrossage” that continues, right to the next door, in the smaller but very interesting space of the same Gallery, with works that have been renewed since Summer. A second visit is required at Almine Rech Gallery that is on presentatiom Claire Tabouret’s solo exhibition and at Perrotin Galerie that are on presentation three solo exhibitions by Laurent Grasso, Leslie Hewitt  and MADSAKI, because it takes time and needs quietness to be able to see and understand the artworks. And the first phase of our journey ends with black and white artworks by Glenn Ligon that take text to an even more abstract level in his solo exhibition “Debris Field/Notes for a Poem on the Third World/Soleil Nègre” at Galerie Chantal Crousel, while in the same straight line is balancing Olivier Nottellet’s solo exhibition entitled “Enigmes” at Odile Ouzeman Gallery. We were stranded by the series of matchbooks and giant matches in bronze by Raymond Hains at ‘’Saffa/Seita’’ in Galerie Max Hetzler, while the paintings by Georges Mathieu, in the exhibition ‘’Les années 1960-1970’’ at Galerie Daniel Templon act as a balancing epilogue of a day full of icons and pulsing emotions (!)

While a series of interesting exhibitions is following, among them the Franz West Retrospective at Centre Pompidou.

The artist that left their stigma in the history of Contemporary art and are presented at the column “Traces” this month are: Dennis Oppenheim (6/9), Christian Boltanski (6/9), Sol LeWitt (9/9), John Cage (5/9), Lucas Samaras (14/9 ), Carl Andre (16/9), Mark Rothko (25/9) and Ilya Kabakov (30/9).

As for the architects they are: Fumihiko Maki (6/9), Kenzo Tange (4/9), Tadao Ando (13/9) and Renzo Piano (14/9).

Good Month (!)
9/9/18
Efi Michalarou