Built to host national or foreign artists in a residency program, the annex warehouse at Galeria Leme is now being used as an exhibition space with the opening of the group show ‘Don’t Box Me In.
Out of the four participants, three – Fernanda Chieco, Delphine Balley, and Patrick Jolley – met in 2007 during a residency at the IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) in Dublin and, with mutual understanding, discovered deep artistic affinities. With the exhibition already in mind, they invited another artist – Eoin McHugh.
Their works disturb and, at the same time, enchant. Often deceiving at first sight, requiring some dedicated time for more careful observation. They possess a subtle and ethereal side as well as an aggressive and degenerate aspect. They are ambiguous and borderline. They discuss the body and the spirit, bringing forth internal ghosts – intimate and collective ones – liberating them in a playful manner.
Delphine Balley (Romans, 1974. Lives and works in Lyon). Delphine enjoys stories and creates series of photographs that narrate real cases or anecdotes altered by high doses of fantasy and surrealism. The photographs presented in ‘Don’t Box Me In’ are part of the series ’11, Henrietta Street,’ from 2007, created during her residency at IMMA. The story of the Platt family women is told through silent yet powerful images. The use of light adheres to classical rules, and the colors and compositions reveal harmony reminiscent of academic paintings. However, all of them, in one way or another, transgress, reflecting the artist’s preference for a mysterious ‘huis clos.’
Eoin McHugh (Dublin, 1977. Lives and works in Dublin). Eoin McHugh presents a wallpaper and two paintings on paper. With his palette of pale colors, the artist constructs non-linear narratives where centuries converge through patterns and symbols drawn from the imaginary. Realism and fantasy, known and unknown, acceptance and estrangement blend. McHugh adopts idiosyncrasy and creates a dreamlike and subversive universe.
Fernanda Chieco (São Paulo, 1976. Lives and works in Dublin and São Paulo). The São Paulo artist participates in the exhibition with three drawings from the series ‘Angelvs Domini,’ from 2007, also created during her residency in Dublin. In all of them, groups of 12 people, men and women, represented by a faint and continuous pencil line, interact in an unusual way around a wild animal. These people belong to an ambivalent world, where the ordinary and the spiritual, the sensual and the ethereal, the modern and the classic coexist, evoking a sense of discomfort and lightness.
Patrick Jolley (Dublin, 1964. Lives and works in Dublin). Jolley’s intention is to create documentary work. However, his films describe what is present but not necessarily visible or tangible. They are a provocative portrait of our fears, neuroses, taboos, and contained impulses. In this exhibition, the artist presents ‘Sog,’ from 2007, a video where a building develops an allergic reaction to its inhabitants. While everything decays and collapses, people continue to lead their banal lives, even amidst a tumultuous environment.