ART-TRIBUTE:Lionel Esteve

Two solo exhibitions of the artist are on presentation this time in Europe, his first solo show in Spain, “Un nuage sur mes épaules”, at the Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona and the “Α wander” at the Gallerie Perotin, Paris. How does Lionel Esteve work? It generally begins with this special relationship with Nature, in the Drôme, or in Tuscany. As he says, “Nature tells us something”.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Archives of Blueproject Foundation & Gallerie Perrotin

Nature speaks, and what she says is mysterious. It is not about an ecological or melancholic relationship, but a very contemporary and constructive one, a new way of thinking of drawing and sculpture…The relationship with Nature is personal and, of necessity, complex, it is not given, it is learned, and earned. Certainly, there are images of freedom, of leisure, of space… but there is also the revelation of losing oneself in the universe. Lionel Esteve in his first solo show in Spain presents “Un nuage sur mes épaules”, which is on show at the exhibition space, Il Salotto of the Blueproject Foundation, presents a site-specific project designed to transform the exhibition space and use all the features and potentiality of this space. The space is transformed into an autonomous universe where the viewer completely delves, discovering a poetry installation that converts the exhibition hall of the foundation in a colorful and dreamy world. Using the entire space, Esteve plays with shapes and materials to propose a series of works presented as both air and dense. At the Galerie Perrotin, Paris in the exhibition entiled “A wander”,  presents two large landscapes on glass. In dried and gilded poppies. In addition, six paintings in a new and unique medium, the artist collected various types of plants, dried and pressed, bleached with ink and painted with watercolors following their organic structures. In another room, a frieze of dried and stiffened plants, also gilded with gold leaf, at the base of the walls. Above the frieze: several large-format watercolors, crystals constellations in the shape of geometric prisms, creating multiple variations of colors, composing his own visual garden. The common thread that unites the two otherwise different exhibitions of the artist, is that Esteve, succeeds in challenging the viewer into a world that while is an image and metaphor of nature, at the same time is airy, dragging him in the dream.

Info: “Un nuage sur mes épaules”, Il Salotto, Blueproject Foundation, Carrer Princesa 57, Barcelona, Duration: 6/3-7/6/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-20:00, www.blueprojectfoundation.org
“A wander”, Gallerie Perotin, 76 rue de Turenne, Paris, Duration: 18/4-30/5/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.perrotin.com