FABRICE GYGI

Some news of states, of moments.

A state in good condition,

a bad condition at the right moment,

a bad moment for a good state.

The states; from rupture to rupture make their way and the mind looks for a coherent line,

a reassuring line, a handrail, a guardrail.

Some news...

Some news of water.

Of water turned into snow,

of snow turned into ice,

a popsicle turned into watercolors.

Of straight, thick lines that intersect.

I don’t like cages, even less grids and crosses, and I still negotiate curves just as badly, at an

angle of ninety degrees, always appreciated and oblique.

Some news...

Some news of fat.

Of teeth marks in a stick of butter,

of grease on the telephone mirror,

a blade in the fat which does not want to cross swords, like the blades under a skier’s feet,

I paint like him, engraving the surface, and crossing his lines against those of the other.

Some news...

Some news of yellow.

The yellow of the one who grows, marked with the iron seals of the motto “Lux”.

A light that superimposes itself without adhering to the Teflon of a day that keeps repeating itself.

Fabrice Gygi/Darse, January 26, 2024

Born in 1965, Geneva, Switzerland.

Lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland.

Trained in etching at the Centre genevois de gravure contemporaine and then at theÉcole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Geneva, he began a major production of engravingsand linocuts. From the 90s, gradually evolving from a discourse linked to the intimatesphere to a discourse involving society as a whole, he developed an ensemble ofinstallations and sculptures confronting individuals with their role as citizens, constrainedbetween protection and control. Throughout his career, Fabrice Gygi has sporadicallyused performance as a perpetual exploration of the limits of his body. Borrowing froma minimalist formal vocabulary, he draws inspiration from urban infrastructures as wellas everyday and nomadic objects, which he diverts from their primary functions thusmanifesting ambiguity as a source of tension.

From the early 2010s, Fabrice Gygi initiates a rupture in his work by abandoning thecreation of installations. Though the production of jewelry, then of sculptures and basreliefs with geometrical elementary forms, he focuses on the search for abstract and purelines. At the same time, he began to work on large format watercolors. With a perfectlygeometric composition, these watercolors on paper offer a limited chromatic range andonce again reveal a tension between the material, its control and rigor of its use. FabriceGygi explores the technique of oil painting, freeing himself from the perfect geometry ofhis watercolors while still weaving lines in an abstract mesh of bright colors.

In September 2021, Gygi is awarded the Prix de la Société des Arts de Genève / Visual Arts /7th edition, on the occasion of his solo exhibition.

Major institutional exhibitions by Fabrice Gygi include: MAMCO, Geneva (2021, 2015,2004); Centre d’art contemporain Les Eglises, Chelles (2013); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris(2013); Instituto Svizzero di Roma, Rome (2010); Magasin 3, Stockholm (2006); OrangeCounty Museum of Art, Newport Beach (2005); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen (2005);Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson (2001).

His work was placed in the center of group shows in several international institutionssuch as the Kunstmusem Olten, Olten (2018); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris(2017); Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich (2015); Swiss Institute, New York (2015); Palais de Tokyo,Paris (2011); Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon (2007); Migros museum fürgegenwartskunst, Zürich (2007); Museum Ludwig, Köln (2005); Museo Nacional ReinaSofia, Madrid (2003); 25th Biennial of Ljubljana, Ljubljana (2003); Villa Medici, Rome(2002); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (2000); MoMA PS1, New York (1998); Kunsthalle Bern,Bern (1996).In 2009, he was invited to represent Switzerland at the 53rd International Art Biennial inVenice. He also took part in the São Paulo Biennial in 2002.Fabrice Gygi’s works were acquired by numerous collections including the MAMCO,Geneva; Mudac, Lausanne; Migros Museum, Zürich; M KHA, Antwerp; Magasin 3,Stockholm; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; FRAC Ile deFrance — Le Plateau, Paris; FRAC Normandie — Rouen and the Centre national des artsplastiques, Paris.

Courtesy Galerie Chantal Crousel