VAN DER STEGEN GALLERY

Sans Commune Mesure

2012-01-13T01:49:00.000-08:00

Guillaume Constantin & Raphaël Zarka, Jean-Baptiste Couronne, Rodolphe Delaunay, Jean-François Leroy, Vincent Mauger and Marine Pagès.
Curators: Bertrand Grimont / Tristan van der Stegen

Opening Saturday 14th of January 2012.
(exhibition until the 25th of February 2012).

The gallery is pleased to announce the participation of Marine Pagès and Jean-Baptiste Couronne to the exhibition Sans Commune Mesure in collaboration with gallery Bertrand Grimont.

The group exhibition Sans Commune Mesure, brings together artists who draw their inspiration from formal and theoretical disciplines using measurement. Using drawing, sculpture and collage, presented works share an interest for conception and construction and refer to various fields such as applied sciences, music, architecture, design, cartography, ect.

Marine Pagès, Untitled (Route serie ), 2011, pencil on paper, 21 cm × 29,7 cm.

Jean-Baptiste Couronne, Untitled, 2011, collage, 21.5 cm x 15.5 cm

Sans Commune Mesure

Text by Claire Taillandier

The world is imbued by gravity. No one pretends to escape from it, but some decide to act as if it were possible and although the laws of physics may not be ignored artists bend mathematical rules in order to give shape to the impalpable and defy gravity.

One needn’t be visible to act on the elements. The science of fluids tracks down what escapes from sight and exerts its strength on others. To capture that flow may require the use of phonic insulator container of vibratory waves (Raphaël Zarka et Guillaume Constantin), a ruler pierced by the winds(Rodolphe Delaunay), or a hollowed out sphere submitting gravitational laws to a counterrevolution(Vincent Mauger).

Architecture is the link between the image and the site. Using it in order to get rid of it, the artistscapture shapes and forces at work to re-instill them afterwards. Whether self-grafted volumes (Jean-Baptiste Couronne) or annihilated landscapes (Marine Pagès) or a memory-enabled piece (Jean-François Leroy) these works take part in a boundless perspective.

Any work of art takes has a legacy - historical, scientific, artistic - to which it belongs. In exchange these works contribute to the construction of the present world. The accomplished work resembles each and everyone: rigorous, unpredictable, spectacular or meticulous, in any case outside the established norms.

Translation by Samy da Silva

Nofound in collabration with Monstre > solo show Melissa Steckbauer

2011-11-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

VDS art projects is pleased to announce its participation to Nofound in collaboration with the journal Monstre. Focusing exclusively on photography Nofound will be the opportunity to discover Melissa Steckbauer's recent works.

Colleen, Poms, 2011,collage,10x10cm

Lacerated, perforated, pierced, enmeshed… Melissa Steckbauer changes the status and era of her pictures by changing them physically. Pictures become images and objects; they leave the scope of family albums and are updated with additionnal meanings.

Gma,Gpa, 2011, mixed media, 8.5x8cm

DRAWING NOW / Salon du dessin contemporain

2011-03-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

The gallery is pleased to announce its participation to the Drawing NOW art fair at the Carroussel du Louvre, from the 25th to the 28th of March 2011. The Solo show this year presents Pesce Khete' work. The gallery will also invite P.Nicolas Ledoux alongside regular artists Marine Pagès, John Phillip Abbott, Melissa Steckbauer, SR Labo and Jean-Baptiste Couronne.

Opening is on Thursday the 24th at 6:30pm.

(view of the artist's atelier, 2011)
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SOLO SHOW > PESCE KHETE

Born in 1980, Pesce Khete is a Swiss-Italian painter based in Rome. He has studied at the Institute of Europeo Design and the Academia delle Arte in Rome. His work is exhibited across Europe (France, Italy, Spain and the UK) and in the US. In 2009, his paintings were selected for Volta New York and in 2010, for the « Impresa Pittura » group show, at the CIAC museum in Rome. They are now part of prestigious art collections such at the Golinelli Fondation in Bologna, Italy

HIDDEN

2010-07-10T03:15:00.000-07:00

SR Labo, Marine Pagès, Carl D'Alvia, Pesce Khete, John Phillip Abbott, Melissa Steckbauer

Opening Saturday September 11, 2010 at 6:30pm / exhibition runs until the 16th of October 2010

The gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition presenting for the first time works by all of its artists. Entitled Hidden, the exhibition will focus on the intention to hide all or part of a subject in order to change its nature, status and provide other meanings.

Pesce Khete,
Untitled, 2009, oilstick on paper, 53 x 42 cm
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John Phillip Abbott ,

Untitled, 2007, ink on paper, 21.5 x2 8 cm

To hide is not to erase. It’s rather a way of taking a detour to distance oneself from an obvious fact or from a widely accepted idea. The motivations and processes are numerous. The results are, too. But they come together in a fascinating paradox: concealment and creation are complicit forces which work together and often coincide.

Carl D’Alvia blurs the boundary between drawing and sculpture by presenting, on a plinth, a large surface of paper almost entirely covered with ballpoint pen / Pesce Khete uses portrait as a point of departure; by loosely painting the head, he frees himself from the principles of representation and narration and retains only the idea of human life / John Phillip Abbott metamorphoses the letters of his writings. In this way he multiplies the meanings of words and reinforces the hesitation between what is seen and what is read / Melissa Steckbauer reveals the “hidden side” of her subjects which she humanizes through their hidden desires and fantasies / SR Labo uses an object from a Platonic study (the icosahedron) and gives it an ephemeral power by enclosing a crystalline light within / Marine Pages makes the sky and horizon disappear which emphasizes the line of the roads in her natural, highly contrasted landscapes.

So many examples that demonstrate that concealment represents a theoretical interest, formal entertainment or a feeling of empathy…In Hidden; each artist finds their discourse and chooses their process. For the viewer it will be a paper chase where the notions of means and ends are difficult to detect.

2010-06-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

Jerk Off Festival: group show
Performance by Melissa Steckbauer, Friday June 25th @ 8pm

Marion Auburtin, Gunter, 2007,
painting on paper, 70 x 55 cm

For the third time round Jerk Off festival is extending its program to include visual and perfomance arts. Six artists will particpate to a groupshow, presenting works (paintings, videos and performances) revolving around LGTB sexuality and body representation.
A performance by Melissa Steckbauer is planned on Friday the 30th at 8pm. Exhibition ends on Wednesday the 30th.

Artists

Superm (Brian Kenny & Slava Mogutin)
Melissa Steckbauer
Laurent Pernot
Marion Auburtin
Guillaume Soulatges

http://www.myspace.com/jerkoffestival.

crédit : Abel Llavall-Ubach

HALF CAMP

2010-04-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Melissa Steckbauer : solo exhibition
Opening Thursday 22nd of April at 6:30pm / prolonged to the 12th of June 2010
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The VAN DER STEGEN gallery is pleased to announce Melissa Steckbauer’s first solo exhibition in France. Entitled Half Camp, the exhibition presents an unrestrained depiction of fantasies and sexual practices using paintings, pictures and installations.

Big Red, 2009,
acrylic and tape on paper, 16,75 x 20 cm

The word “camp”, used in the title, holds several meanings giving the possibility for the viewer to understand the exhibition works in different ways. It is an adjective that may be used to designate something out of date; something esthetically overdone or a someone with a very feminine attitude. The sentences « It’s so camp ! » or « he’s so Camp ! » therefore tend to convey a demeaning judgment and one which is often unqualified.

For Melissa Steckbauer, a person can only be half camp or part camp. The works selected for this show emphasize this idea, choosing sex as a topic for demonstration. They take the viewer to the heart of human nature, where “camp” individuals have chosen each other to overcome personal limits and share desires.

credit : Abel Llavall-Ubach

CUT, contemporary collages

2010-02-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

Pierre Beloüin, Barbara Breitenfellner, Jean-Baptiste Couronne, Richard Fauguet, ANN Guillaume, P. Nicolas Ledoux, Justin Mortimer, Marine Pagès
Curated by Marine Pagès & T. van der Stegen
Opening Thursday March 4, 2010 / exhibition until the April 10, 2010

--- Justin Mortimer, untitled 2009, numeric collage, 29,7x21cm
(courtesy de l'artiste)
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CUT is an exhibition dedicated to collage. It aims to highlight the perennity of this technique and encourage discussion on the subject of modern and contemporary collage.

Whether collages use existing images or materials, continuity may be observed in the creative process which systematically deconstructs and reconstructs images or sound. Most artists go about this “assembling” process with no intention of hiding it. But although resources - numeric or not - for collages are now found in greater abundance, the contemporary nature of collages may rest more solidly on content that form. For despite occasional references to pre-war works (dada and surrealism in particular), narrative contents relate closely to the world we live in today.

By gathering the works of 8 artists, the exhibition CUT highlights the importance of this technique which took off almost a century ago and continues to raise interest.

2010-02-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

> Gallery re-opens on Thursday 4th of March 2010

> Fermeture de la galerie jusqu'au jeudi 4 mars 2010

YOU WILL NOT SUFFER (part II)

2010-01-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

SR LABO > presentation of the works used during the performance, with Dr Davide Napoli.
Thursday 21st of January 2010, from 6:30pm to 9pm.

Kept secret under the tent where they were used, the seven instruments created by the artist will be presented for the first time on Thursday the 21st of January (exhibition until the 10h of February 2010).

YOU WILL NOT SUFFER

2010-01-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

SR LABO > Performance with Dr Davide Napoli
Thursday 14th of January 2010 from 6:30 to 9pm

To celebrate this new year, SR Labo kindly invites you to experience the pleasures, fear, and mixed feelings of torture.

SR Labo, 2008, untitled in progress, 5x3,5cm

Seven instruments created by the artist will be used during her performance. Instruments will be felt but never shown.
Sculptures in their own right, these instruments will be exhibited to the public for the first time on Thursday the 14th of January, at 6:30 pm (exbhibition until the 10th February).

Performance :

Through sensation, the visitor will experience the idea of torture in terms of pain and pleasure. This experience will vary depending on the instrument used and the visitors' personal background.

By simulating torture, SR Labo will subversively challenge the boundaries which seperate the victim and the torturer.

The interaction between participants and the artist will take place in a tent and will be kept secret.

During the performance, Doctor Davide Napoli will select participants and diagnose their needs and desires. He will then choose which instrument will be used with the participant and how it will be used.

We wish you an insightful visit,

SR LABO TAKES CARE OF YOU.

Nb: Dr D.Napoli et Dr S.Roshem (alias SR Labo) font partie de la ligne de recherche art & flux.

2009-11-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

JOHN PHILLIP ABBOTT & PESCE KHETE > drawings and paintings
Opening friday november 20, 2009 at 6:30pm (exhibition finishing date: decembre 18)

Je t’aime Skye Boutin presents works by John Phillip Abbott and Pesce Khete with a narrative content.

Pesce Khete, untitled, oilstick and masking tape on paper, 2009

Pesce Khete uses childlike or fairy tale elements in his compositions to paint portraits and describe human relationships. By assembling paper using masking tape, he creates a syntax which bridges the gap between writing and painting. The unusual shapes of his compositions, resulting from his technique on paper also help to convey emotions with power and spontaneity.

John Phillip Abbott, untitled, ink on paper, 2009

In his work using text on paper, John Phillip Abbott describes his daily life; each composition represents a chapter of his personal dairy. Skye Boutin was a third grade crush. Like many other significant events, the memory of it is translated on paper using letters which are used to narrate or to provide a visual vocabulary.

CRY HAPPY

2009-10-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

CARL D'ALVIA > Solo show - drawings & sculptures
Opening Thursday October 1, 2009 at 06:30pm (exhibition until November 7, 2009)

Carl D’Alvia sets a trap. At first glance the viewer is enticed to jump to a simple conclusion: D’Alvia sculpts and draws hairy and funny imaginary beings that seem drawn from cartoons or inspired by fluffy toys. This quick statement is made easy by the composition of his works which are precise and include few subjects.

Carl D'Alvia, Tondo, encre sur papier, 2009

However this first level of understanding leaves the viewer puzzled…For D’Alvia’s pictures stay imbedded in our thoughts and their narrative power combine tragedy and humor.Finding a refuge on a theoretical level is equally difficult…D’Alvia is mischievous and his work contains unexpected and subversive references to art history…

Carl D'Alvia, Magic Frog,résine, 2009

Carl D’Alvia lives and works in New York. His work is shown in New York, Milan and Paris.The VDS gallery will present his work during the SLICK art fair in Paris from the 22nd to the 26th of October 2009.

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY and never be found

2009-09-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

LUCIE PASTUREAU + DOROTHEE SMITH > curated by Abel Llavall-Ubach
Opening Thursday September 10, 2009 at 6:30pm

In reference to the Doug Richmond’s guide on how to succeed a change of identity (1985) and to Radiohead’s song carrying the same title (2000), the exhibition shows the work of two young photographers on the subject of youth, gender and identity.

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L. Pastureau, sans titre, série Frères, 2006-2009, 15x15cm (ed 1)

Lucie Pastureau’s photography depicts a period of life between adolescence and adulthood. Her pictures are like those of a family album; reminiscent of the Boston school of photography, they are taken with spontaneity and focus on the intimacy of her relationship to the subjects, (friends and family).

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D. Smith, sans titre, série Löyly, 2009, 60x80cm (ed 10)

Dorothée Smith works in a different time frame and focuses more heavily on identity and gender. Her subjects are androgynous and introverted. They look absent minded. Personal feelings are depicted through a choice of setting and lighting but also through a the relationship D.Smith builds between her portraits and her landscapes.

D. Smith, sans titre, série Löyly, 2009, 60x80cm (ed 10)

AMALGAME

2009-06-06T01:50:00.000-07:00

SR LABO

Opening Thursday June 11 2009 at 6:30pm

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"And all of a sudden in front of our eyes, wax reveals its fertility, as if the goddess Isis had thrown off her veils. The parallel with Heraclite’s saying is striking: “Nature likes to hide by showing”. But if one reality often hides another, in rare times, two realities in opposition may amalgamate into one body. SR Labo’s sculptures have this capacity to amalgamate; but they also reach a quantum state where materials are vibrant and refuse to settle for any given identity (…) "F-C Baitinger

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Miniature, 160x120mm, Cire et verre, 2009

EXHIBITION VIEWS

crédit photo : Abel Llavall-Ubach

HOME N' GONE

2009-05-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

John Phillip Abbott, Leylagoor & Ann Guillaume,

Vanessa Fanuele, Melissa Steckbauer
Opening Friday May 15, 2009 at 6:30pm
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The exhibition "Home n' gone" is as an open invitation to five artists to explore in-depth the subject of home using various media .

For some, home is a geographic place of belonging, for example: a physical domain or a community that invokes safety. For others, there exists a more abstract understanding; home is both time and place, and potentially a culture.

Yet for most "Home" is paradoxically a place one can lean on and come back to, as well as a place to be left. It is a force of gravity to wrestle with in order to grow up. For this reason the exhibition title and content also cover the desire to be away from home or to look at home from a distance.

Vanessa Fanuele, Silence, mixt media, 32x24cm, 2009

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Melissa Steckbauer, Marie and Melissa, collage, 20x16cm, 2007

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Leylagoor & Ann Guillaume, Dédales II, mixt media, 65x50cm, 2009

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John Phillipp Abbott, untitled, ink on paper, 28x21,6cm, 2007

THEFLOW : HUNT

2009-03-04T03:15:00.000-08:00

Opening Thursday 12th of March 2009 at 6:30 pm

The VAN DER STEGEN gallery & ONE SHOT gallery present HUNT: the first part of a global exhibition project entitled THEFLOW. Created by two artists - Raphaël Thierry and Christian Volckman - working under the name of ©®, HUNT will present a movie as well as a series of paintings and sculptures.
The movie is an animation movie which was done following the principle of the “cadavre exquis” : a game played by surrealists where an artist continues the work of another artist without knowing precisely what he has represented. It includes several soundtracks written by composer Alexandre Meyer. Each soundtrack creates a different interpretation by the viewer.
Paintings (dyptics) and sculptures by ©® are created and exhibited in reference to the movie.

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EXHIBITION VIEWS

" I MOSTRI "

2009-01-15T02:33:00.000-08:00

Federico Solmi * Pesce Khete * Vanessa Fanuele * Melissa Steckbauer Curated by Yann Perol

Opening Thursday Janvier 15, 2009at 18h30pm

I MOSTRI is a movie directed by Dino Risi in 1963. It is made of twenty sketches exploring the depth of human soul in search of the worst it has to offer. In reference to this movie, the exhibition presents the work of four artists who are heavily influenced by this theme and show unusual and disturbing beings.

Pesce Khete * Federico Solmi * Vanessa Fanuele * Melissa Steckbauer * with works ranging from drawing to video unveil such monsters. Self identification or figment of the imagination, these monsters swing from humor to terror, communicating fear or compassion.

Federico Solmi, King Kong and the end of the world, picture animation, 4 mn 28,sec, 2006 ed 2./10 + 1 ex
Pesce Khete , untitled, oil on paper 83 x 114cm, 2006

Vanessa Fanuele , Land’s 102x66,5cm, 2008

Melissa Steckbauer, Eaters, watercolor on paper, 15x18,5cm, 2008

ADRIEN VESCOVI - "Qui n'a guère de réalité" ( "With not much reality" )

2008-09-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Opening Friday september 19, 2008 at 6pm

The gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Adrien Vescovi’s first personal exhibition on Friday September 19, 2008. The exhibition will present a selection of works covering a period of three years and based on the relationship between game, war and memories.

To highlight the strength and ambivalence of this relationship, Vescovi relies on several media (drawing, photography, video and sculpture) and questions the difference between fiction and reality. He uses childlike tongue and cheek humour and more serious imagery related to wartime and collective memory.

Untitled (2005)

Nacht und Nebel (2007)

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VIEW OF THE EXHIBITION :

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Opening night ! Exhibition ANIMALIA # 1

2008-05-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Opening Friday the 16th May 2008 from 6pm to 9pm

The VAN DER STEGEN gallery is inaugurating its exhibition space on Friday the 16th of May with a group show entitled ANIMALIA # 1. Focusing on the subject of hybrid beings (half man, half animal) this group show will start a quarterly exhibition program with photography, painting and sculpture.

CLAUDE BERNON

As a photographer, Claude Bernon wanders through the forests of France in search of the creatures which play a part in Russian tales. Half animal, half plant these strange beings reveal themselves in remote and hidden places. Only the most patient and observing eyes are able to see these creatures. When this happens, time is at a standstill and the observer suddenly becomes the one observed.

SR LABO

SR LABO uses wax as a medium to represent animal and human bodies. In 2003 she created a series of sculptures entitled “The Animal Complex”. This complex can be defined as the urge felt by men to free themselves from the social and psychological status of “civilized human beings”. What we witness with her sculptures is the result of a process whereby a different identity is constructed using animal attributes that relate to the subject’s personality.

MELISSA STECKBAUER

Melissa Steckbauer is a multi-media artist working with painting, photography and video. The name and theme of this exhibition are inspired by a series of Steckbauer's paintings undertaken in 2007 and 2008 entitled "Animalia". Presented alone or in groups, characters of this series are in search of their identity, their sexuality, or they are simply striving to fulfill their sexual fantasies. In doing so, the bodies of individuals are melded with their animal guide, evidence of shamanic ritual. Animals are paired with figures according to their character traits (tenderness, ferociousness, dominance, etc.). The result is a compelling blend of half-human and half-animal that allows each protagonist to play his or her part.

Film of the openight night :

Curtesy Honkytonk production

View of the exhibition :