Galerie Lelong & Co. (Paris, New York) is pleased to participate to the first edition of Frieze Seoul with a selection of artworks reflecting the gallery's international programme.
Marc Desgrandchamps (b.1960)
The work of Marc Desgrandchamps is filled with references to art
history, photography and cinema: mysterious landscapes, often
dominated by the artist's typical blue sky, are sometimes inhabited
by precisely drawn figures who seem to be frozen in suspended
animation. Notable solo exhibitions of his work include the Musée d'art
contemporain in Strasbourg, the Musée d'art contemporain in Lyon,
the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Musée d'Art Moderne
de Paris. Two extensive exhibitions are in preparation for 2023 at
museums in Marseille and Dijon (France). His works are included in
many public and private collections in France, Switzerland, Germany,
Belgium, and also Taiwan, China and Korea.
Leonardo Drew (b.1961)
For over three decades, Leonardo Drew has become known for creating contemplative abstract sculptural works that play
upon a tension between order and chaos. At once monumental
and intimate in scale, his work recalls post-Minimalist sculpture
that alludes to America's industrial past. Drew transforms
accumulations of raw materials such as wood, scrap metal, and
cotton to articulate various overlapping themes with emotional
gravitas: from the cyclical nature of life and decay to the erosion
of time. His surfaces often approach a language of their own,
embodying the laboured process of writing oneself into history.
During the recent Art Basel artfair (2022) a major site-specific
installation received a great acclaim and was featured on the front page of the Financial Times.
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)
Dubuffet's approach to aesthetics embraced so-called «low art» and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favour of what he believed to be a more humanistic approach to image-making. He is best known
for defining 'Art Brut' and for building a collection of items corresponding to this definition. A painter, sculptor
and writer, Dubuffet enjoyed a prolific career as an artist, both in France and in America, and was featured
in many exhibitions throughout his lifetime. Today the Dubuffet Foundation in Paris continues to defend his
work, and produces large scale sculptures according to the artist's instructions. In September 2022 Galerie
Lelong & Co. will host in Paris an exhibition of rarely seen paintings from 1975.
Günther Förg (1952–2013)
Günther Förg was part of a new generation of German painters who, as early as the 1980's, sought to push back the limits of abstract painting and helped define postmodernism. Using a variety of techniques and
materials, he is mostly known for his later explorations in large-format
paintings where colour and form are associated in either minimalistic
or grid-like compositions. Exhibitions of his work have been organised
at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Museo Reina Sofia
in Madrid and the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. In 2018, the Stedelijk
Museum in Amsterdam organised a major retrospective entitled A
Fragile Beauty which travelled to Dallas Museum of Art.
David Hockney (b.1937)
David Hockney attracted attention early on in London, where his personality and his attitudes stood out on the artistic scene, then left for New York
in 1963. But it was California that captivated and fascinated him, and he
made his first visit there in 1964. David Hockney draws his inspiration
from his close environment: his family, his friends, the landscapes that
surround him, the artists he admires. He rejects abstract and conceptual art
and does not wish to be categorised in any 'school'. He takes advantage
of new tools to explore other artistic avenues, notably photography and
photographic collage which allow him to play with perspective and create
a multifocal vision. He has always been very interested in new technology:
from the fax and the photocopy to the iPhone, iPad, computers and video.
In 2017, for his 80th birthday, a travelling retrospective started at Tate
Britain, London then moved in a modified version to the Centre Georges
Pompidou in Paris and in 2019 at the Seoul Museum of Art, his first largescale survey exhibition in Asia;. Hockney recently settled in Normandy, France : the nature and houses
inspired a new body of works which were unveiled for the first time at Galerie Lelong in Paris in 2020, then at
the Royal Academy in London and at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris.
Joan Miró (1893–1983)
A leading figure of 20th Century art, throughout his life Joan Miró defended absolute freedom and in doing so avoided all convention, whether cubist, surrealist or abstract. Over six decades, the Catalan artist, author
of a rich sign language, painter and poet, prolific engraver, sculptor, ceramicist and creator of stage settings
invented his own universe. A large exhibition was presented at Grand Palais, Paris in 2019, and more
projects are in preparation at Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain, and in Belgium at Musée de Mons. The
first exhibition of Miró in the gallery spaces of rue de Téhéran opened in 1949, and Galerie Lelong has been
representing the artist and its Estate since its creation.
David Nash (b. 1945)
British sculptor and drawer David Nash has been in a constant dialogue with trees for more than 50 years, not only those of his home region of
North Wales, but also the trees of Japan, California, Portugal, and more.
David Nash uses a variety of 'tools' from the axe and the chainsaw to
fire and water; he is also a skilled artist, drawing with pencils, chalk
and stencils. He often allows the seasons to transform his sculptures,
thus integrating them into the natural evolutionary cycle. Not only is
he a sculptor, but David Nash is a sort of gardener: he plants and
raises his trees, guiding their shapes with timely interventions. Indeed,
an appreciation of time and a respect for nature are as important to
his work as a saw or an axe. Like the Ancient Chinese, he considers
wood to be the fifth element and he uses the four others to work it:
Major recent exhibitions include Kew Gardens, London 2012 ; National
Museum, Cardiff, 2021 ; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England, 2022. His
works are present in significant Korean collections.
Jaume Plensa (b. 1955)
Jaume Plensa creates sculptures and installations that unify individuals through connections of spirituality, the body, and
collective memory. Literature, psychology, biology, language, and
history have been key guiding elements throughout his career.
Using a wide range of materials including steel, cast iron, resin,
paraffin wax, glass, light, water, and sound, Plensa lends physical
weight and volume to components of the human condition and the
ephemeral. Plensa is highly active in projects in public space. His
celebrated works can be seen in Millennium Park, Chicago; Lotte
Tower, Seoul; Ogijima, Japan; and Shanghai IFC Mall, China; and
more recently a 22-meter portrait sculpture was unveiled in New
Jersey, opposite the skyline of Manhattan.
Antoni Tàpies (1923–2012)
The life and career of Antoni Tàpies are indissociable from Spanish history. For a long time, the Catalan painter and sculptor wrote and painted in response to Francoism. He earned fame in the 1960s for his
intransigent painting technique which broke with tradition by using poor materials (rope, sand, organic matter)
and objects from daily life. In Barcelona, the Tàpies Foundation is one of the most famous buildings of the
city and organises exhibitions of contemporary art. In 2023 a major retrospective will open at Museo Reina
Sofia in Madrid.
Barthélémy Toguo (b. 1967)
Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, and installation, Barthélémy Toguo addresses enduring and immediately
relevant issues of borders, exile, and displacement. At the core of his
practice is the notion of belonging, which stems from his dual French/Cameroonian nationality. Through poetic, hopeful, and often figural gestures
connecting nature with the human body, Toguo foregrounds concerns with
both ecological and societal implications. Recently, his works have been
informed by movements and humanitarian tragedy including #BlackLivesMatter and the refugee crisis. He states, 'What guides me is a constantly
evolving aesthetic but also a sense of ethics, which makes a difference,
and structures my entire approach.'
In 2008, he founded Bandjoun Station in his native Cameroon to foster contemporary art and culture within the local community. The community centre includes an exhibition space, a library, an artist residency, and
an organic farm. His works have attracted a growing attention in recent years and, and joined major museum
collections in France, Switzerland, the USA...
Fabienne Verdier (b.1962)
Fabienne Verdier, a contemporary French painter, studied painting, aesthetics and philosophy with Chinese masters during a long sojourn to
Chongqing that she described in the book Passagère du silence, translated
into six languages. Fabienne Verdier regularly exhibits her work in Europe
and Asia. Her paintings are part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou in
Paris, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich and the Fondation
Hubert Looser in Zurich, to name only a few. The Musée Granet in Aix-enProvence has organised a vast retrospective of her work in June 2019, and
the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar is holding in October 2022 an exhibition
of new paintings inspired by the famous Isenheim altar.
Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris represents these artists: