EDWYNN HOUK GALLERY
745 Fifth Avenue New York NY 10151 Tel 212 750 7070 Fax 212 688 4848
PRESSRELEASE Contact:Ms.HannahThunhorst [email protected]
VALÉRIEBELINPAINTEDLADIES2March–31March2018Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York is pleased to announce anexhibition of Valérie Belin’smost recent series,Painted Ladies,fortheartist’sfourthexhibitionatthegallery.Theexhibitionofeightlarge-scaleblack-and-whitephotographswillbeonview2–31March2018.Overthepast twodecades,ValérieBelinhascreatedabodyofworkthatchallengesandmanipulatestheindexicalnatureofthe
photographic surface to explore ideas of beauty, artifice, and illusion. Painted Ladies continuesBelin’s fascination with the human body as a powerful vessel for abstraction and projectedmeaning.Inspiredbyearlytwentieth-centuryexpressionistpainters,Belincollaboratedwithmake-up artist Isamaya Ffrench to paintmodelswith various brushes in themanner of initiatory tribalrituals. These brushes lend their names to the individual titles of theworks, such asLady RoundBrush,Lady Pastel, andLady Inpainting, and also mirror the equivalent digital retouching toolsfoundintheimage-processingsoftwarethatBelinemploys.Belin has stated that her work originates from painting. In these works, the models’ faces aremetamorphisizedandreducedtocanvas-likesurfaces,whoseexpressionshavebeenassignedandactualized by the artist. The pictorial quality of each image, abstracted beyond portraiture, iscreatedbythepainterlyinterventionsonthemodelsbeforethephotographistakenandthedigitalprocessingofthe imagesafterthephotographyoccurs.This interrogationregardingthenatureofthe image, the process involved, and what the viewer is actually looking at, creates a sense ofuncertainty that questions the power of surface as a signifier. The affected stylization of Belin’ssubjects carries a conspicuous veneer of artificiality that mirrors our culture’s mainstreamacceptanceofstagedandhyper-editedimagesasreality.Presentingthesemeta-clichésinalarger-than life scale, the series reframes the recurringquestionsof the relationsbetweenphotographyandpainting,figurationandabstraction,andrealityandfiction.Valérie Belin (b. 1964, Boulogne-Billancourt, France) has exhibited extensively both domesticallyand abroad. One-person exhibitions of the artist’s work have been held at the Institut CulturelBernard Magrez, Bordeaux (2017-2018); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); the Multimedia ArtMuseum,Moscow(2013);PeabodyEssexMuseum,Salem,MA(2009);Muséed’Orsay,Paris(2008);MaisonEuropéenede laPhotographie,Paris (2008);andHuisMarseille,Amsterdam,Netherlands(2007) among others. In 2017, the artist’s first retrospective in Asia travelled to Three ShadowsPhotography Art Centre, Beijing; Shanghai Center of Photography; and the Chengdu Museum,China. Work by the artist is included in museum collections worldwide, including Centre
EDWYNN HOUK GALLERY
745 Fifth Avenue New York NY 10151 Tel 212 750 7070 Fax 212 688 4848
GeorgesPompidou,Paris;Muséed’artModernedelaVilledeParis;KunsthausZürich;LosAngelesCountyMuseum;MuseumofModernArt,NewYork;andtheSanFranciscoMuseumofModernArt.BelinwastherecipientofthePrixPictetin2015.In2017,shewasmadeanofficerofFrance’sOrdredesArtsetdesLettres.BelinlivesandworksinParis.
