LIONEL ESTÈVE
Collective Hallucination
January 27 – February 26, 2011
Lionel Estève has established himself as an artist creating works made out of small, tiny elements, which were formerly part of another project. They are characterized by extreme dimensions, intense combinations of color and a variety of materials such as: rocks, rubber, rope, cloth, steel, paper, used to create sculptures, drawings or collages waving between abstraction and representation.
Each of his works can be defined as a spatial drawing where the colors flow either fast or quietly. By being both non-formal and fragile, Estève’s works are extremely powerful, insofar as they direct the eye more than they are to be looked at for themselves. They stimulate perception of an infinite reality, by unveiling an almost tangible space.
For Lionel Estève diminution, fragility, invisibility and informal is not only a formal ploy but an ethical assertion, a sign intimating that it is concentration and depth, rather than physical size, that determines the success and even the reach of a piece. The whimsical choice of materials and its denial of grand in the most obvious way shows a profoundly antiheroic stance: a piece of art can be made of just about anything, which suggests a close tie between the claim of art and life.
For his new show at Bernier-Eliades Gallery, the artist will be showing a group of moving sculptures, vibrating paintings and drawings. Characterized by movement, these pieces look alive, resist communication, and address the eye as a sensory organ.
As one enters the gallery space is facing a group of sculptures turning around their selves so fast that they appear like transparent, and accompanied by a drawing with an uncertain status, in volume, shine and transparency. In the second room four large vibrating hanging surfaces, give life to a breeding ground, which is painted on them. Some well-behaved drawings in the third room, acclaim that things are hidden, covered and unconscious. At the end of the way, there is a white monochrome piece, which invites the viewer closer.
Maybe the title of the show is a metaphor- it declares that art is an experience to live, it is mentally and collectively shared, and is also a way of questioning reality.