When attending an opening, one always wonders what to expect, and every time, even if you know the artist or the gallery, you are pleasantly surprised and never jaded, because each opening is unique.
Galerie Ferrero offers us a pleasant surprise with Antoine Graff. Is it the stall of a fabric merchant whose bolts have been spread out at the whims of the wind? Or crumpled shirts? “Little pieces of paper,” explains a regular visitor. Folded paper, imitating the reliefs of rolling hills.
The artist explains his work. The sheet of paper is moistened, crumpled, stiffened, and placed on a frame. Then the varnish and the colors (automotive paint) are the final steps of this process. So, you always ask the question: fabrics, shirts, or paper? The patterns are varied: Gingham, Dots, Stripes, Mesh and a Thousand Points, hatching or Bar Code, Milky Way, Comic Book Heroes, and even Poetic with the Crow and the Fox by La Fontaine. You might also think of a novel by Louis Nucéra, where the writer talks about the red and white checkered tablecloth on his grandmother’s table, a cloth that the child would have crumpled.
Antoine Graff has multiplied the effects with the play of lines, dots, folds, and colors. This gesture of crumpling a sheet of paper, giving it a shape, its shape, accidental or random folding, cannot be answered. We tend to love the idea of the image of a crumpled Gingham shirt, placed there and left at the end of the day, forgotten in a basket, and the artist gives it a new life by fixing the false creases that become here a work of art.
Antoine Graff is a painter, sculptor, and plastic artist, but above all, he is a unique artist in his own right. Sculptures where tones ripple in sharp angles, hollow out or rise. For a month, you will be able to admire these crumpled paper fabrics, and you must not miss this colorful and lively exhibition.
T Jan.
CRUMPLED PAPER OR FABRICS
Antoine Graff
Galerie Ferrero May 16 – June 16, 2013.
