Marais, Paris
Sean Bluechel
Sean Bluechel
Laurent Godin[Scroll down for French version / Veuillez trouver ci-dessous la version française] We are happy to present in the basement of the gallery, an exhibition by American artist Sean Bluechel. For this first collaboration he will be showing a series of small recent paintings. They have a particular status in Bluechel’s production. As a result of daily private and prolific practices, the artist never accepted to show them publicly before. Thus these paintings illustrate perfectly the childlike irreverence, the humor and the detachment that Sean shows in his work as well as in his life. We also notice this attitude in his work as ceramist in which he cheerfully turns his nose up at all the rules proper to this technique. His appetite for challenge and absurd we find it again in his exhibition - Not as bad as bad bad bad, presented simultaneoulsy at Galerie Joseph Tang (Paris) where Sean Bluechel on a different note appointed the galerist the fulfillment of his works by an interpretation of forty four « commandments ». « There are no answers here The works are produced in opposition to conclusions or a need to reach an answer or find the known and named etc There are sisters and brothers , cousins etc . As in most family's there are tensions between one to the other, there is also great love and understanding between other members. Formal plays that allow the commotion to arrange outside of one painting and move through out the grid. At the same time the exactitude of placement is purposeful creating a back and forth , up and down , sideways, jumping momentum etc . The system is irrelevant amongst thousands of possible ones. As all relationships are best when allowed to grow organically. This is also a reason for the size, not only for practical reasons but I am allowed to move and treat each one with total distance and intern allow for more radical associations. Here because of a distance towards a singular aesthetic, an overall "sensibility " is what enables the vast amount of variables to suspend hierarchy. The size allows while in the studio to not have the sacred or a psychological weight that an expensive large canvas presents. They are like sheets of Xerox paper and so I am allowed great freedom to fall. There should not be an outright depiction, this is a plant , a road, here are some ears , eyes etc. I try very hard to keep anything from ending in a recognizable image. It is rather a flirt with possible outcomes or directions verses depicting one thing. These paintings are not a single local but all local. They flirt with the notion of becoming but begin and remain transitory . There is always a question. How can we show a quiet, spiritual, or ghoulish constant of the unknown aspects of a life ? The unknown void, is it named, is it humorous, doubted, feared? Is it purple , green brown, does it have red lines across a yellow shape ? Will we always claim it as a fear of death? How humorous our fear of death. Is this what makes us draw the known over and over ,the figure and face? Are we so desperate in looking for similarity and importance that we seek it out in a mirror of depiction. These works are not abstract. I do not start with a subject and then morph it into a abstraction. Work in a way that is subtle, quiet and at the same moment menacing and unrelenting. Maybe I'm trying to obtain spiritual blankness, a silent hilarity, a dead beginning. They do demand an effort on the viewers part and I hope the more one brings to the table , the more one will leave with. » -Sean Bluechel Born in San Francisco in 1969 he lives and works in New York. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 et from Yale University in 2003. He currently has an exhibition at Galerie Joseph Tang in Paris. He recently exhibited at Nicole Klagsburn Gallery, NY ; Salon 94, NY ; Moma PS 1, NY ; Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Michigan, US ; Galerie Mary Boone, NY ; His work is part of Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf. ***** Nous sommes heureux de présenter dans le sous-sol de la galerie une exposition de l’artiste américain Sean Bluechel. Pour cette première collaboration est exposé un ensemble de peintures de petit formats inédites et récentes. Ces œuvres, ont dans la production de Bluechel, un statut particulier. Découlant d’une pratique quotidienne, intime et prolifique, l’artiste n’avait jamais accepté de les exposer jusqu'à aujourd’hui. Ainsi, ces peintures illustrent très bien le caractère d’irrévérence enfantine, l’humour et le détachement dont Sean Bluchel sait faire preuve dans sont travail comme dans la vie. Une attitude que l’on retrouve également dans son travail de céramiste, dans lequel il fait fi joyeusement de toutes les règles propres à ce médium. Ce goût du défi et de l’absurde se retrouve également dans l’exposition – Not as bad as bad bad bad, présentée simultanément à la Galerie Joseph Tang (Paris) pour laquelle, Sean Bluchel a, dans un registre plus conceptuel, délégué au galeriste la réalisation de ses oeuvres par l’interprétation sous forme de quarante quatre « commandements » « There are no answers here The works are produced in opposition to conclusions or a need to reach an answer or find the known and named etc There are sisters and brothers , cousins etc . As in most family's there are tensions between one to the other, there is also great love and understanding between other members. Formal plays that allow the commotion to arrange outside of one painting and move through out the grid. At the same time the exactitude of placement is purposeful creating a back and forth , up and down , sideways, jumping momentum etc . The system is irrelevant amongst thousands of possible ones. As all relationships are best when allowed to grow organically. This is also a reason for the size, not only for practical reasons but I am allowed to move and treat each one with total distance and intern allow for more radical associations. Here because of a distance towards a singular aesthetic, an overall "sensibility " is what enables the vast amount of variables to suspend hierarchy. The size allows while in the studio to not have the sacred or a psychological weight that an expensive large canvas presents. They are like sheets of Xerox paper and so I am allowed great freedom to fall. There should not be an outright depiction, this is a plant , a road, here are some ears , eyes etc. I try very hard to keep anything from ending in a recognizable image. It is rather a flirt with possible outcomes or directions verses depicting one thing. These paintings are not a single local but all local. They flirt with the notion of becoming but begin and remain transitory . There is always a question. How can we show a quiet, spiritual, or ghoulish constant of the unknown aspects of a life ? The unknown void, is it named, is it humorous, doubted, feared? Is it purple , green brown, does it have red lines across a yellow shape ? Will we always claim it as a fear of death? How humorous our fear of death. Is this what makes us draw the known over and over ,the figure and face? Are we so desperate in looking for similarity and importance that we seek it out in a mirror of depiction. These works are not abstract. I do not start with a subject and then morph it into a abstraction. Work in a way that is subtle, quiet and at the same moment menacing and unrelenting. Maybe I'm trying to obtain spiritual blankness, a silent hilarity, a dead beginning. They do demand an effort on the viewers part and I hope the more one brings to the table , the more one will leave with. » -Sean Bluechel Né à San Francisco en 1969, il vit et travaille à New York. Il est diplômé du San Francisco Art Institute en 1999 et de l’université Yale en 2003. Il a actuellement une exposition personnelle à la Galerie Joseph Tang à Paris. Son travail a également été présenté à la Galerie Nicole Klagsburn, NY ; Salon 94, NY ; Moma PS 1, NY ; Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Michigan, US ; Galerie Mary Boone, NY ; Son travail fait partie de la Collection Julia Stoschek à Düsseldorf.