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Jean-Sébastien Denis’s works evince the signs of an incessant investigation of —indeed, what seems to be a veritable obsession with—the inexhaustible possibilities of painting and medium. Now, after 15 years of unswervingly determined exploration, emerge pictorial ecosystems whose artistic singularity is more evident than ever before. In this, his third solo exhibition at Galerie Simon Blais, the artist presents a new series of works on canvas and paper. Machinations shows abstract worlds made up of complex networks of heterogeneous forms interacting within ethereal spaces. Continuing the play with texture and visual density characterizing his previous work, this time Denis undertakes to conquer the third dimension by creating weightless worlds in which nexuses of suspended forms predominate. A new vocabulary of forms, one in which the organic (associated here with the gestural and fluid nature of the shapes) is mixed with images inspired by the digital universe (more graphic and geometric, emphasized by a precision of line) fills the depths of these spaces. In Machinations, Jean-Sébastien Denis combines an aesthetic inspired by the virtural world—evidence in itself of an evolution in his creative process—with a formal investigation focusing on the physical properties of his medium.
The official launch of the catalogue Jean-Sébastien Denis: Machinations will take place at the exhibition opening. Including an original essay by Benjamin Klein, this publication takes a look at both the current exhibition and the artist’s other recent work from 2009 to 2011.
Galerie Simon Blais is pleased to announce the addition of Yann Pocreau to the roster of artists it represents. To mark the beginning of this new collaboration and give a taste of what this photographer has already accomplished, the gallery is presenting a selection of the works he produced between 2007 and 2009.
Yann Pocreau’s photographic practice is essentially directed by a shared primacy, and intimate association, of subject and place. Through various physical interventions, this artist wishes to develop an empathetic relationship with a particular space with the idea of revealing something of its invisible history and context. His photographs therefore reflect a growing interest in the possible and impossible connections between the condition of a particular body and a particular place. This choice, long driven by the narrative, historical, political or simply photographic potential of a given location, now appears much more informed and deliberate, guided not by what might potentially be said, but where it comes from: the context. He therefore attempts to make contact with that context, to reveal it by means of different strategies in terms of form and staging. Natural light counts for a great deal in this. Ubiquitous in his work, it is used to bring settings to life, emphasizing certain details or exalting the surfaces of walls or his body, a guide that body must follow to divide space, to yield to it in order to adapt to and understand it.
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