Sylvain Azam — Pressure Sensitive Tapes, peintures

Exhibition

Painting

Sylvain Azam
Pressure Sensitive Tapes, peintures

Past: April 25 → June 15, 2013

Sylvain Azam creates illusions. If illusion is the charicteristic of art, here this young painter does not need to evoke subjects, nor narratives. On the surface of these canvases, painted with representations of tape and its trancparency, this artist brings a new and exciting method to abstract conceptual painting. Sylvain Azam does not hide the palpable joy exuding from these works. The complexity of this work is therefore apparent and one is just as likely to think of the precise constructions of Vera Molnar, as the rhythmic work of Aurelie Nemours and even the paper cutouts by Matisse. Sylvain Azam integrates this story while disussing this new series in more detail:

“Oscillating between analysis and synthesis, I do not choose between the functionality of the material- the tape- and its metaphorical potential-tearing, blinding, repairing, idleness. I have already tested the construction of an abstract work regarding the operation of certain ophthalmolographical tools… Here, the illusion produced by these fake tapes adds to the confusion between these cateogries (concrete/kinetic, abstract/conceptual etc) in which we might be tempted to keep them.

I construct the vocabulary of my painting dialectically. This method allows me to articulate two types of visual effects: those that are illusionist and others that are concrete. I often achieve the first effect with spray paint working mostly with my eyes at a distance from the canvas. I obtain the concrete effects through direct contact with the surface of the painting using my hands, a paintbrush, a blending stump, or strips of adhesive. Proceeding in this way, I create a space between myself and the image. I imagine this interval like a living space more than a distance.

This puts forth the idea of a painting like a closed object, in which one must perpetually question boundaries. I am delighted to find, in this regard, a possible play between the surface of the painting and the surface of the eye. With this perspective, a detatchment from the retina can absolutely serve as a guide for a brushstroke. So I can paint beyond the monocular fence as well as within the interior of my vision.”

Sylvain Azam was born in 1984 in Strasbourg, France. He lives and works in Patin.
He graduated from the Beaux Arts de Paris in 2009.

Principale exhibitions :

2013 : “Pressure Sensitive Tapes” Galerie Eric Mircher. Paris. Solo exhibition.
2012 : 57th Salon de Montrouge. Curated by Stephane Corréard.
2011 : “One but Not the Same.” RongWrong Art Space. Amsterdam.
2009 :   “Cas par Cas”, galerie droite des Beaux-Arts. Paris. Solo exhibition.

Eric Mircher Gallery Gallery
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26, rue Saint-Claude

75003 Paris

T. 01 48 87 02 13

Official website

Saint-Sébastien – Froissart

Opening hours

Tuesday – Saturday, 11 AM – 7 PM
Other times by appointment

The artist

  • Sylvain Azam