Villa Magdalena is thrilled to announce Louis Jacquot’s (Paris, 1994) first exhibition with the gallery and his first solo presentation in Spain, Lay. Since graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2020), Jacquot has continued to create a body of work that contemplates the relationship between objects and pictures. The shaped canvases on view combine minimalist gestures with a range of iconographies. Louis Jacquot: Lay will be open to the public by appointment only beginning on October 11 until November 22.  

 

Despite the artist’s disregard for representation during his academic studies, Jacquot’s most recent paintings deal with indecipherable subjects that loosely resonate with recognizable motifs. At school the artist’s studio was more akin to a woodworker’s shop than a painter’s studio. He avoided his “own” mark-making in favor of sculptural objects that are practically exempt of any graphic elements. In the few cases where pigments were applied Jacquot chose images that could belong to anyone. The artist developed an impersonal vocabulary of generic found symbols appropriated from the street: hearts, anarchy signs, tags, vulgar expressions. Any universal emblems with an inherent ability to communicate with a broad audience became of interest.  The nonspecific character of this visual information evokes a distant approach that questions the appearance of any individualized mode of painterly expression.

 

In order to mine his “own” pictorial dimension Jacquot knew he would need the right kind of surface. The blue panels on view mark a significant change in the artist’s attitude. Here Jacquot presents us with an unconventional shape that is worthy of pictures. They represent panels of meaning that enable a myriad of formal solutions in terms of image-making. He has created an object that can host his sentimental, narrative impulses while giving himself, curators and collectors various possibilities of installation often responding or echoing the space that will host the work. 

 

This ongoing series of blue shaped canvases began with Jacquot’s thesis show  (2020), a presentation of paintings which were the first examples of this particular style. Both the imagery and the shaped stretcher that constitute these pieces originate from his Montauk Drawings (2019); monochromatic silver drawings that remain fixed to moleskin notebooks. The shape of this particular notebook, with it’s straight and round edges meant to fit easily into a pocket, or more importantly slide onto one’s “body”, is a fundamental point of departure for the artist. Jacquot understood that the shape’s intimate association - through its proximity to the body - was the perfect motivation to blow up this scale, and as a result, create a distinct kind of  surface to paint on. Another omnipresent element are blue textiles. This standardized industrial material used in the mass production of pajamas, underwear and other bedding products in France represents yet another conceptual manifestation of the body which enables Jacquot’s new expressionistic tendencies. In a more primordial manner, blue possesses a poetic universality as it conjures up the sky and the sea. A vision that develops in a visual realm akin to that of real life.

 

The new works on view at Villa Magdalena take their inspiration from a selection of drawings of fragmented scenes. These scenes are constructed from a variety of sources: archeological, personal, religious and art historical. Layered compositions, rendered primarily in alcohol-based chrome paint  and black polyurethane, ground themselves in different blue atmospheric hues. Inherently reflective chrome paint becomes subject to constant change as a result of varying factors; different stages of natural lighting in the space throughout the day, artificial lighting at night, and viewers who activate blurry mirror images of whatever they are wearing that day. This non-color acts as a blind spot, creating a heightened contrast with their soft backdrops. Another compelling dichotomy occurs when one observes the way the toxic industrial pigments interact with the fabrics. Thick metallic strokes become increasingly tactile and convey an artificiality that seems to contaminate the natural purity of their opposites. 

 

Louis Jacquot (Paris, 1994) graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris (2020), where he presented his BFA Thesis show. In 2021 he exhibited alongside Clédia Fourniau in the two-person exhibition, Æquo (2021) at the Double Séjour project space, located at POUSH (Clichy). In 2022, Jacquot completed a residency at the Fonds de Dotations Weiss, which concluded with his first solo exhibition, Check 1 2 1 2 (2022). The same year, his work was included in the Société Générale Collection. Jeopardy, the artist´s first solo exhibition with DS Galerie, which represents Jacquot, took place in the Spring of 2023 in Paris. Gilbert de Clerc in collaboration with Charles Guilhembet was presented as the final residency exhibition at Gate 44 in Milan (2023).