Martin van Zomeren is pleased to present ‘FA FA FA’, a group exhibition with Bastien Aubry & Dimitri Broquard, Jean-Baptiste Maitre, Navid Nuur and Tom Humphreys. All the works on display show different ways of dealing with the medium of ceramics.
The ‘Corner Sculptures’ of Bastien Aubry & Dimitri Broquard structure the exhibition space. Made from melamine panels, recalling basic furniture kits and hand made ceramic brackets, the sculptures divert the materials from their usual functionality. Ceramics are no longer simply decorative pieces but are necessary to the structure of the sculptures. In the series ‘Cerebral Box’, painted and digitally transferred images are brought together in ceramic cereal boxes. The swiss duo mingles with humor modern and antique art references with cereal branding.
The ceramic sculptures of Jean-Baptiste Maitre re-use the formal vocabulary of neon signs and play with the way original artworks are transformed by the so-called ecology of art - i.e. every text, image, film and conversation that is not an artwork but talks about it - and how it can affect the way we perceive and remember them. In these works, the artist employs ceramics to investigate how images are created and remain in our cultural collective unconscious.
Tom Humphreys’ work is often referred to as painting. However the main material is often ceramics, that is preferred to traditional supports such as canvas or paper. Printing and painting on ceramic tiles, the artist explores problems of taste always refusing any preset artistic mode of production.
Finally the work in the exhibition of Navid Nuur investigates the different possibilities within the medium of painting. In ‘Redblueredblue’ (2007-2014), all physical and emotional traces are visible and the materials themselves - and not the canvas - are used as final form.
Bastien Aubry (1974, Switzerland) and Dimitri Broquard (1969, Switzerland) studied at the Ecole d’arts visuels Berne et Bienne, Switzerland. They teach in several art schools in Switzerland and live and work in Zurich. Recent solo exhibitions include institutions such as Kunsthaus, Glarus; Le Portique, espace d’art contemporain, Le Havre; Grand Palais, Bern; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris.
Jean-Baptiste Maitre (1978, France), works in Paris and Amsterdam. Recent shows include ‘It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it’, Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam; CODEX, Wattis Institute for contemporary Arts, San Francisco; ’Stripe Paintings’, La Salle De Bain art center, Lyon; ‘This is what I meant’, P/////AKT, Amsterdam; and ‘Post-Sculpture’ with bruce McClean, Galerie 1m3, Lausanne.
Tom Humphreys (1972, UK) lives and works in London. His work was recently exhibited at What Pipeline, Detroit; Cura, Rome; Portikus, Frankfurt; Walden Affairs, The Hague; Christian Andersen, Copenhagen; High Art, Paris; Rob Tufnell, London; Bortolami Gallery, New York; Limoncello, London; Kunsthall, Bergen; Tomorrow, Toronto; Pro Choice, Vienna. Humphreys founded and operated Flaca, a London project space dedicated to facilitating collaborative, group, and solo exhibitions by young international artists that ran from 2003 to 2007.
Navid Nuur (1976, Iran/Netherlands) lives and works in the Hague. His past exhibitions include major institutions such as Trafó - House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest (2014); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2014); Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht (2014-2013); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013); Parasol unit, London (2013), Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2011), Venice Biennale (2011), Museion, Bolzano (2011); Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2009).