“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Monday October 20th — —

The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Monday October 20th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Monday October 20th — —

Théâtre de la Mémoire by Marc Giai-Miniet

We have written about the extraordinary work of the French artist Marc Giai-Miniet before and on the 11th of October his one of a kind sculptures have finally crossed the the Atlantic Ocean for his first solo exhibition in the United States. The work of Giai-Miniet is truly unique and balances the fine handcraft involved in the creation of his tiny dioramas with poignant explorations through memory, association, and dreamscape. His tiny homes, though dealing with images of mundane possessions, industrial equipment, and furniture, evoke a feeling which is surreal and even a touch sinister. His sculptures are heavily influenced by childhood visits to the garage his father worked in as a mechanic, hence the systematic arrangements of the spaces and industrial influences, but also the exposure of the images of the Holocaust at a young age are mentioned when one deconstructs where in his life the roots for his incredible art have grown from.

From the whiteness of books to the darkness of sewers, there is a never-ending to and fro between the two main poles of humanity: bestiality and transcendence, human fragility and inaccessible divinity.

Marc Giai-Miniet, who was born in 1946 in the city of Trappes, France, where he still lis based, views his boxes as a metaphor for the human condition, which is comprised of biological functions, as well as a desire to achieve intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. This duality is represented by the presence of machinery in the works, symbolizing the physical side of human nature, while literature suggests the logical side. Where also his fascination with libraries, which as mentioned in our earlier writing play also a big role in the rooms he creates, is explained from.

The New York City-based Jonathan LeVine Gallery is committed to new and cutting edge art. The roots of the gallery start in 1995, when Jonathan Levine’s life-long participation in punk and underground music grew into a curatorial experiment with the visual culture that surrounded him. The gallery moved to Chelsea in 2005, with an eye towards honoring and connecting with the history and context of Post War art. The gallery aims to contribute to the dialogue by challenging the conventions of the canon by exploring the terrain of the high/low and everything in between, in which the extraordinary are of Giai-Miniet perfectly fits.

The exhibition will run until November 8, 2014.
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is located at 529 West 20th Street and 557C West 23rd Street, New York.

For more information see here.