Stéphane Margolis
Géothermie
Friday, June 3, 2016 – Saturday, July 30, 2016
projects+gallery is pleased to present Géothermie, an exhibition featuring the work of Paris-based ceramicist Stéphane Margolis. Margolis is represented by Barrett Barrera Projects and Géothermie marks the artist's first solo presentation in the United States.
Stéphane Margolis uses geothermal energy to create his limestone petrifications in a natural cave in the region of Auvergne, France. The petrified texture inherent in his modernist ceramics provides a physical manifestation of the effects of geothermal energy, while encouraging us to return from the artificiality of contemporary manufacturing to the processes of creation found in the natural world.
In dialogue with the ethos of nineteenth-century Romanticism and twentieth-century Surrealism, the artist’s vegetal and petrified creations examine definitions of the sublime, revealing an important, if sometimes challenging, aesthetic-moral relationship with a natural world that is both physically and metaphysically greater than ourselves. His sculptural and photographic artworks are visually striking, conveying the beauty of a fragile planet currently threatened by our indulgence, and the possibility of ominous and otherworldly landscapes.
Through his exhibition, Stéphane Margolis invites the viewer to reconnect with the beauty and strangeness of nature. Géothermie is tribute and invitation to the discovery of the living world and its many complexities.
Géothermie will be on view until Saturday, July 30, 2016.