Act I:
Ashore

Show
June 18 - August 21, 2022

Brice Guilbert

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Laurent Veldekens

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Text by Reilly Davidson

Menorca’s faded architecture is steeped in historicity, the weight of which contributes to Ashore’s vitality. Surrounded by water and largely forsaken by modernity, the island lacks in excess and instead provides an encounter with antiquity. 10n’s outpost is located in a former carpentry factory near the capital, Mahón. The location provides a context that is inextricably linked to days of old, thus brushes with the past collide with projections of the future.

Julien Auregan implicates mythology and naturalism within a practice marked by curiosity. His work is contingent upon an expanded pictorial field; How does a painting transform a space? What does it offer and what are its processional modes? He fervently experiments with materials, drawing in rabbit excesses and strange pigments in order to develop rigorous compositions. These compositions are wracked with Auregan’s compelling semiotics as he collages apparently disparate elements within the same frame. He deploys lyrical motifs in order to expand an already rigorous process of abstraction. By demonstrating material pliancies, he produces a distinctive network of formal inclinations.

Refracted light from a body of water reverberates throughout Laurent Veldekens’s compositions. He works by recovering and dismantling images in order to alight the possibilities within a framework. His surfaces are manipulated to create different levels, hence mirroring the experience of a scratch-off lottery ticket. Language is reflected in his pools as both a formal gesture and another inscription of gaming culture through its vernacular; Negation and chance in conversation. His pools offer a Jungian dimension. According to Jung, water is representative of the collective unconscious while the act of swimming denotes a fractured social order. Despite an apneic approach, Veldekens pursues a clear aspect - that of individual realization.

Brice Guilbert’s serial practice finds its footing in a recapitulation of the Piton de la Fournaise. The image of this volcano is Guilbert’s irrevocable link to the island of Réunion and his childhood. By returning to the same subject over and over again he is able to build a strong, idiosyncratic language rooted in landscape. The new “Fournez” paintings were composed with echoes of Menorca’s soft light in mind. New island, new context, same affecting reflections of youth. Effulgence, contrast, and the spoils of repetition stimulate his small-scale abstractions, ultimately centering painting’s physical dimension.

Each artist clearly offers a distinct node, yet they share particular intonations and material curiosities. It’s as though they’ve each encountered the same starting point, though diverge on separate paths and delve into markedly different research modes. Along the way, however, they unite with compatible reference points and engage with one another from disparate vantage points. The alliance here evolved from an organic process; Artists bound together in constant dialogue.

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