GRAND PALAIS ÉPHÉMÈRE, PARIS, BOOTH F07
For the first edition of Paris+ par Art Basel Andréhn-Schiptjenko presents a curated booth with new works by five artists: Xavier Veilhan, Cajsa von Zeipel, Dana-Fiona Armour, Cornelia Baltes and Cecilia Bengolea.
Whilst differing in aesthetics and practice, hybridization between the corporeal, science, and nature is a common denominator for them all. Their shared interest in moments charged with transition is reflected in their respective practices, manifesting a body without boundary of sorts. The meeting between Baltes’, Veilhan’s and Armour’s minimalistic, yet bold expressions with the expansive nature of Bengolea’s and von Zeipel’s aesthetics creates a compelling interplay where relevant contemporary concepts are brought into evidence.
Xavier Veilhan, b. 1963, France. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Xavier Veilhan is arguably of his generation’s most important artists. His work is multi- faceted; encompassing sculpture, installation, painting, photography as well as hybrids of all of these, and he is also engaged in performance work and filmmaking. He plays with the notions of the generic, of the industrially produced object and of universal representation, creating objects at once ambivalent and stark. Concerned with the scenography of a dedicated presentation, Veilhan addresses issues of perception as well as the physical and temporal relationships created within the context of the exhibition format.
Veilhan’s on-going formal research into both figuration and abstraction and his interest in works that investigate both the second and third dimension, has led him to explore well-known categories such as portraiture, statuary and mobiles.
Xavier’s work has been exhibited worldwide in acclaimed institutions such as the Château de Versailles, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strasbourg, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Geneva and in 2017 at the 57th Venice Biennale, for which he transformed the French Pavilion into Studio Venezia.
Cajsa von Zeipel, b. 1983, Sweden. Lives and works in New York, USA.
Cajsa von Zeipel is a sculptor whose work delves into identity, gender, queerness and normativity. Von Zeipel constructs her female figures in pastel coloured silicone in an evocation of sci-fi and fantasy aesthetics. The silicone – a material that is common in implants, sex toys, and kitchen equipment – brings her sculptures to life. Beneath the silicone there are parts of mannequins, objects that are typically used to construct desire in capitalist spaces. Sawing off limbs and reconnecting disparate pieces, von Zeipel destroys their normative bodies; rather than statically wearing clothes, these reconfigured forms take on uncanny movements. Limbs shake, fingers bend, skin wrinkles, and mouths fall in a manner that mimics our own physicality.
Recent exhibitions include a solo-exhibition at Rubell Museum, as well as group-exhibitions Women and Change, Arken Museum (2022), Journey Through a Body, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, and Art of Sport, Copenhagen Contemporary (all 2021). Her work was also presented at Eclipse: 7th Athens Biennale (2021).
Dana-Fiona Armour, b. 1988, Germany. Lives and works in Paris, France.
By wishing to put all species on the same level (vegetal, animal and human), Armour creates hybrids where the organic blends with the rigid forms of minimalism and conceptual art. She has a trans-disciplinary practice where science plays a fundamental role. Exhibiting in 2022 at the Collection Lambert with the solo-exhibition MC1R, originating from her collaboration with the genome engineering company Cellectis, Armour has also been part of the group-exhibition Planet B. Climate Change and the New Sublime, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud and shown in connection to the 2022 Venice Biennale. At Paris + we will be exhibiting a series of glassworks, tainted by melanine powder, giving them hues of purple and violet and with shapes inspired by the digitalized images of plant root systems.
Cornelia Baltes, b. 1978, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Cornelia Baltes is a German artist known for her paintings and installations that stand on the edge of abstraction and figuration. Corporeal elements such as hands and feet, part of a face, often captured in motion, are teased out of bold colour fields and gestural forms that combine to hint at a narrative in pictorial space. Baltes invites us into a coherent world where spontaneity and playfulness are balanced with unexpected detail: both meticulous and specific, yet light and effortless. In her work, dense pigment is applied in a tightly controlled palette as solid fields or fine gradations which reveal or conceal the raw canvas, while 'spontaneous' brushstrokes are placed with care in spare but vibrant compositions.
In 2019 and 2020, Baltes was part of the extensive Jeztz! Now!Young Painting in Germany exhibition which spanned Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Wiesbaden, Kunstsammlung Chemnitz, and Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.
Cecilia Bengolea, b. 1979, Argentina. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Bengolea is a multidisciplinary artist using dance as a tool and a medium for radical empathy and emotional exchange. Through collaboration with others – artists, performers, DJs and dancers – Bengolea develops a broad artistry where she sees movement, dance and performance as animated sculpture, where she herself is both object and subject in her own work. Bengolea’s performances and works have been widely exhibited at acclaimed institutions. In mid-May, Bengolea’s most recent body of work, Deary Steel, brings together dance, performance, sculpture and video installation and was premiered at Mudam Luxembourg. Other notable, recent projects include a solo-exhibition at Guggenheim Bilbao (2021) and a commissioned interactive performance and video work for Art Basel Parcours, at Messeplatz in Basel (2021), as well as an upcoming commission to mark the 25th anniversary of The Guggenheim Bilbao.
For further information please contact Joséphine Bursacchi at josephine@andrehn-schiptjenko.com.
On October 20, Cajsa von Zeipel opens a solo-exhibition at our Paris space, open Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm, Saturday 1pm-6pm.
