Friday, December 4, 2009

Paris : Double Trouble !!

An exhibition of new collage works by Matthew Rose and photographs by Bernard Matussière Private Bits & Autres Choses, is a one-day affair held in the historic quarters of Montparnasse. Double Trouble pairs the hapless with the happening and the mad with the magical.  The public is invited to attend the show on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at the studio of Bernard Matussière, 37 Rue Froidevaux 75014 Paris (near the Montparnasse Cemetery), beginning at 2pm. Studio Matussière has also invited artists Sarah de Teliga and Max Mulhern to participate.

Bernard Matussière is well known for his work in fashion, art and journalism.  His campaign for Aubade, the lingerie brand, Les Leçons du Désir, was posted throughout Paris some years ago and the images in black and white so sexy they were said to cause a number of auto accidents as drivers inadvertently hit the brakes.  While Matussière has worked on hundreds of advertising campaigns, he is also acclaimed for his nudes.  His book, Female Nudes, brings together some 100 images of women from his travels and studio work.  The photographer has also travelled widely and his work in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Japan and Africa has been published all over the world.  "This little exhibition is a way for me to show some new works," said Matussière, "and meet some new faces here in Paris."

Matthew Rose, long-time cut and paste collagist.  His massive installations have created a stir with their surreal and complex wall-to-wall-to-ceiling-to floor displays of 1000 pieces.  The artist, a New Yorker who has lived and worked in Paris since 1992, will exhibit new works on canvas and board, including works to be included in Masters: Collage, a compendium of the state of the art of collage due out by Lark Books in May 2010.  Matthew Rose's most recent work was the global collaborative A Book About Death, which opened in New York City in September and has since moved across the planet in a half-dozen re-exhibitions. Rose will also debut his prize-winning stamp sheet, Rubens Rounding Third. The piece earned a first place award from the MUFI Stamp Museum in Mexico this past October. This A3-sized work features a baseball player stopped dead in his tracks by a looming black and white image of a Rubens nude; the artist produced 1000 stampsheets, each with a gummed back, perforations, dated, signed and numbered.

Sarah de Teliga is a Paris-based Australian artist who exhibits both in London and Sydney.  Her most recent show at the Helen Stephens Gallery in Sydney featured works on bus and car smashed beer cans and oil landscapes that mixed the serene with the odd strange detail.  That show sold out. In London, Sarah exhibits with England & Company, and is extremely busy on private commissions for corporations and private collectors. De Teliga is currently launching a new series of works on flattened metal pieces and considering shooting a short film about her aesthetic processes.

Max Mulhern is an American sculptor working in a range of materials from wood to bronze to a combination of both.  The artist has exhibited in in Europe (Paris, London), focusing on "nautical innovations."  His sculptures in bronze are often complex erotic abstractions while his large and small scale works in painted wood unpack forms and reinvent the pedestal.  In fact, Mulhern's most recent innovation is a series of pedestals made out of cut wood, all arranged to fit in a "boîte en valise," a Duchampian gesture that points to the complexities of the Frenchman's art in box. Mulhern also writes regularly for the Art Blog.
Date: December 5, 2009 Time: 2pm

Adress:  Studio Matussière, 37 Rue Froidevaux, 75014 Paris (near the Montparnasse Cemetary)