2010 : void-a-void, The Promenade Gallery, Vlöre, Albania

The Promenade Gallery is proud to present “void-a-void” Lucie Fontaine’s first solo show in Albania.

Continuing her desire to subvert the alphabet of contemporary art, Lucie Fontaine presents here for the first time a series of what she calls “rhizomatic paintings.” Mimicking the work of Roy Lichtenstein or George Seurat, this medium is characterized by a series of dots (a reference to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari) and a grid (referring to Michel Foucault). Dividing drawing and color – a connection to the Renaissance and Vasari’s giving precedence to drawing over painting and sculpture – the works are figural, but, can be seen at the same time as representing as pure patterns.

The painting reinterprets Beato Angelico’s Saint Anthony the Abbot tempted by a Lump of Gold, the original of which is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The work, replicated several times, exists as a digital image. Once printed and framed, its size and technique (inject print, digital print, etc.) can change any time. In fact, for this show, the work has been “created” according to the frame: first the frames and then the works inside in the frames, rather than the other way around. Lucie Fontaine is thus trying to fill the void – the empty frames – as well as to avoid the classic path.

The title of the show plays with the words “void” and “a-void” and also refer to the seminal work-show by Yves Klein entitled Le Vide (The Void), displayed at Galerie Iris Clert in Paris.