Category Archives: Paris

Artist Focus: Icy & Sot (IR)

April 9, 2020 butterfly

During this period of lockdown, we look through the artistic journey of Iranian brothers Icy & Sot and their recent show ‘Fences Faces’ at Magda Gallery in Paris.

Iranian refugees now living in New York, they started their practice using stencils to highlight political and social messages. We first met them in Norway in 2014 for Nuart (covered) and again in 2015 in Berlin for Urban Nation (covered here).

For the past four years the brothers have detached themselves from stencils and moved on to experimenting with new materials which helped them sharpen and strengthen their political and social messages.

They created sculptures like the refugee boat in Dresden (Magic City 2017) or in-situ installations made of iron and barbed wire in Berlin (Urban Nation 2017), Ostend (Crystal Ship 2018), or London (Watch this space 2019) which we were fortunate to witness.

While exploring new techniques and tools, they have continued questioning and reflect on immigration, borders, refugees, social issues, women rights, freedom and capitalism.

The result is a new body of work presented earlier this year at ‘Fences Faces’ , their first solo in Paris at Magda Gallery.

The show features sculptural installations using raw material like barbed wire, iron wire, old rusty shovels or oil cans, new paintings created with a self- made cut-out steel tool, as well as photographs of previous ephemeral installations they built in different countries.

Through their unique visual language, they are delivering powerful, moving universal statements on the human condition, with poetry and fragility, while letting the door open to hope and dreams.

View the full set of pics here

Icy & Sot – Fences Faces
Magda Gallery
Paris

Paris, Shows

Video: Hisham Echafaki for the Musee de la Poste

November 29, 2019 butterfly

Paris, Shows

Paris: Okuda & Remed “Temples et Ames”

November 26, 2019 butterfly

ADDA & SARTO Gallery in Paris is currently showing a duo exhibition with artists OKUDA and REMED titled ‘ Temples et Ames’.

One is from Lille in France, the other from Santander in Spain. Madrid adopted them both and they each developed in their own way a very particular style of urban art. On one side the poetry of REMED, on the other side the inexhaustible energy of OKUDA, both playing with sunny colours inspired by the Spanish sun.

OKUDA SAN MIGUEL and REMED worked together for the first time in 2011 on two canvases, linking their styles within their work. In 2012, under the direction of Anna Dimitrova, they began a long serie of collaborations together that took them to more than 20 countries around the world. From Moscow to Miami via Oslo, Madrid, Mexico… These are the cities that inspire them and where they accumulate life experiences closely linked to their creations. They are multidisciplinary artists: from walls to giant sculptures, canvases, boats…

A real synergy has been developing between them and their work. Evolving through the years, their creativity gave birth to a third artist.

While they both continue their path with exhibitions around the world and notable mural interventions, their strong creative connection remains present.

“Temples and Souls” showcases just how contemporary their work is, far from their debut on the streets

Okuda San Miguel & Remed collaborative pieces

Okuda San Miguel

Okuda invites the viewer into a psychedelic vortex of colours and geometric patterns.
In his work, rainbow geometric architectures blend with organic shapes, bodies without identity, headless animals and symbols. His works often raise questions about existentialism, the universe, the infinite, the meaning of life, and the contradictions of the false freedom of capitalism, showing a conflict between modernity and our roots.

Remed

Remed works harmoniously with geometry and calligraphy, developing a universal language of shapes and colors. Playing with the visible and invisible, figurative and abstract, he makes his figures disappear within vivid colours and flat patterns. He also loves playing words and created several typographies His artworks tell intricate stories and poems on the significance of life and love.

View the full set of pics here

Okuda san Miguel & Remed ‘Temples et Ames’
Adda & Sarto Gallery
35 Avenue Matignon
Until End December 2019

Museum, Paris

Paris: Hisham Echafaki for the Musee de la Poste

November 15, 2019 butterfly

The Musee de la Poste has been undergoing massive transformation and architectural refurbishing during the past 6 years. To celebrate its reopening, we have collaborated with artist Hisham Echafaki to create specific artworks for the facade of the new building.

A series of festive panels illustrate different postal boxes through the years and pays tribute to many art movements from Art Nouveau, Art Deco to Pop Art and more.
In parallel, Hisham Echafaki integrated messages about the acceleration of the fauna extinction ( from trophy hunting to the increased plastic pollution).

The last panel represents bees taking over a postal box and launching an S.O.S.

The Musee de la Poste will open to the public on 23 November.

View the full set of pics here

L’Adresse Musee de la Poste, 34 Bd de Vaugirard, 75015 Paris

Paris, Shows

Mr. & Pharrell Williams ‘Call to Action’ (Paris)

July 21, 2019 butterfly

The Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts (MNAAG) in Paris, home to the largest collection of Asian arts in Europe, gave ‘Carte Blanche’ to a site-specific installation created by Japanese contemporary artist Mr. and curated by Pharrell Williams : it’s a ‘Call to Action’.

Located on the fourth-floor rotunda beneath the dome of the main Guimet building, the exhibition runs until September 23, 2019. The project started five years ago based on an idea by Pharrell Williams–who is a self-proclaimed fan of Mr.’s work. The result of this long standing collaboration is an installation of bright, child-like figures sporting a military aesthetic while some carry firearms: the duo emphasizes the importance of younger generations in a world tormented by adult choices.

Pharrell Williams commented: “Kids run the world and this work is a challenge to leaders to do something immediately – for a better, bright future.”

Featuring painting, sculptures and neon signs, Mr. invites the viewer into an immersive pastel coloured world, which aims to represent a positive and peaceful momentum in finding solutions for today’s problems. “Amid the tension and crisis of uncertainty that we live in today, we need to believe in the hope that can be found in children, and take inspiration on the promise of their optimistic outlook and spirit. Kids have the power. With art, we start this dialogue in this way” says Mr.

The toy-looking rifles do not symbolise violence literally, but militance. Children’s best weapon, to be protected at all costs, is their creativity and imagination.