​Galerie Greta Meert is pleased to present HOTELS, Magali Reus's first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Rooted in seemingly everyday objects and images, Reus' work initially evokes a sense of familiarity. What begins as a recognisable reference—a chair, a street curb, a fridge, a padlock, a saddle, a fire-hose, an alarm clock, a cooking pot—is gradually transformed by cross-fertilised textures, deliberately mismatched techniques, maximised anomalies, and misapplied engineering, until it migrates away from recognition and towards abstraction. Visual elements are reproduced, layered and repeated in works that are individually crafted using complex casting, moulding and CNC milling and metalwork techniques, pitting the aggressive emptiness of manufacture against the slow diligence of handiwork.

Oscillating between craft-based and technological production, Reus borrows existing objects and places them within, under, next to, and inside each other in ways that are compatible with their material demands even if they are incompatible to human ones. This process of juxtaposition unfolds the hidden complexity of her works as the familiar is made strange and the disruption of ordinary settings and associations gives way to brand new, ambiguous forms.

Press release courtesy Galerie Greta Meert.