Project 09

Etienne Courtois - Paul Lee - Richard Nonas

For his ninth project OV is delighted to present an exhibition with 

Etienne Courtois, Paul Lee and Richard Nonas. 

They will be therefore sharing the project space in an open presentation where their works will be interacting in a very appropriate dialogue - confronting their practices belonging to different cultures and generations. The project aims to present works which have been especially selected or produced for this occasion. Centered on a common interest for sculptural exploration, handcrafted and the perception of our contemporary environment - beyond any limitations of the art world.

The project aims to present works which have been especially selected or produced for this occasion. 

Centered on a common interest for sculptural exploration, handcrafted and the perception of our contemporary environment - beyond any limitations of the artworld.

Richard Nonas being an anthropologist and having lived with the American Natives for more than a decade - his practice and philosophy is obviously influenced by his American fellows with who he shares his days in the NY of the Seventies : Richard Serra, John Cage but also Philip Glass - as Richard Bellamy from the historical and prestigious NY Green Gallery. 

He represent a generation of artists who during the Seventies used ironically a Minimalist language marked by a certain taste and appetite for poetry - proposing a strong alternative to the dominance of Minimalism cold and strict rigor. 

Richard Nonas sensitive art speak not only to the intellect but also our deepest feelings - to the gut. The idea of the place - and concrete space - whether in the form of the building or objects, shifts our perception of the ethic world and our world itself. 

On his side and in a very personal and unique quest, Paul Lee combines an extensive varety of works, made over the past decade with a serie thought especially for this particular project. Using a mixture of constructed wooden forms, stretched canvases and found objects such as soda cans, tambourines, light bulbs, washcloths and bath towels - Lee’s work subvert ways of portraying human physical interactions. 

The various elements are altered, reformulated and combined for producing sculptures referencing intimate exchanges and personal affections, building upon indirect representations of certain collective histories and hidden personal narratives. 

And Finally, we  present a recent serie of black and white photographs by Brussels based artist Etienne Courtois questioning the status of objects and sculptures through a very personal bidimensional research, re-appropriating for this goal the practice of his elders from Dada.

The three of them express with their very own and particular manner their personal history and experience. 

P10 Bl Pl Rn Image 114
1.

Etienne Courtois

P09_EC_1
  • Obviously Before Long (and even now in fact), 2013
  • Archival pigment print
  • unframed : 50 x 40,4 cm (19 11/16 x 15 15/16 inches)
  • framed : 50,8 x 41,2 cm ( 20 x 16 1/4 inches)
2.

Paul Lee

P09 Pl
  • Ways towards you, 2018
  • Tambourine, basswood, wood glue, screws, acrylic paint, pastel
  • 25.4 x 50.8 x 30.48 cm (10 x 20 x 12 inches)