DARIO ROBLETO

Sculptures.

Dario Robleto amasses artefacts weighted with symbolism and performs an alchemical transformation by fusing them with other meaningful materials, which he manipulates into new objects. He gathers and collects fragments of matter, moved by melancholy and partial to the poetic potential of every item as a vector of past emotions and unheard stories ready to be expressed in the present.

FRANCES TROMBLY

Textile works.

Frances Trombly uses weaving and embroidery to create imitations of ordinary, mass-produced, and frequently neglected objects. At first glance, these meticulously crafted artefacts could pass for readymades simply left behind in the gallery, but a closer look reveals exquisitely detailed simulacra, the product great labour. Through the fiction of mimetism, the artist addresses our relationships with inconsequential objects scattered through our everyday lives.

JONATHAN ALLEN

Installations et screen printed posters.

A hundred “magicians’ bills” are displayed on shelves in a wall showcase in the small Œil de Poisson gallery. These records, now esoteric but once abundant in the pockets of prestidigitators of old, played a double role as magic trick accessories and tools of self-promotion. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the golden age of theatrical illusionism, magicians seeking fame and fortune produced these types of notes adorned with their own images. On one excellent example from 1885, magician Signor Alfred Bosco emblazoned his bills with the grandiose inscription, “Bank of the Great Wizard of the World.”

KAZ OSHIRO

Untitled (Steel Beam), 2017, installation.

Untitled (Steel Beam) is a meticulous reproduction of stacked beam showing the minutest details, up to and including faint signs of wear and tear. Here, the faux readymade refers to an emblematic object of industrial modernity, a knowing nod to the theoretical foundations of Oshiro’s process. At the meeting-place of pictorial modernism and conceptual art, the artist interrogates the very essence of a work of art, while also cultivating an interest in the history of representation and its reproducibility.

XU BING

Background story : Peach Blossom Valley, 2020, Sculptural Installation.

In his Background Story series, Xu Bing’s installations appear to present traditional Chinese paintings of landscapes with calligraphy. At first glance, the pieces appear to be monumental historical works mounted on lightboxes. As we look more closely, however, and move around the back of the installation, we see that things are not what they seem.