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Sean Kelly is delighted to present OttO, Laurent Grasso’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Centered around a remarkable film commissioned for the 21st Biennale of Sydney, which will have its US debut at the gallery, the exhibition presents new paintings, video and sculptures related to themes explored in the film. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, October 24, from 6-8pm. The artist will be present.
The eponymous film OttO, Grasso’s most ambitious to date, was shot in November 2017 on four aboriginal sacred sites in the Northern Territory of the Australian desert. When it premiered at the 21st Biennale of Sydney in March 2018, it was an acknowledged highlight of the biennale. OttO was shot in collaboration with the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation and the community of Yuendumu, its “traditional owners.” Grasso employed thermal and hyperspectral cameras as well as drones in an attempt to capture the electromagnetic radiation being emitted from these remarkable places, assembling a visually stunning story that intertwines fiction, reality, faith and science.
Continuing Grasso’s exploration of new perspectives on the world, the exhibition presents paintings on palladium panels, onyx and marble sculptures, and glowing glass orbs filled with argon gas. Solar Wind is a three-meter-high video-sculpture that makes visual solar activity on the sun, from data provided by four international observatories, in real time. It provides the viewer with an abstract portrait of human apprehension in the face of invisible energy. This presentation of scientific data echoes the recording of the electromagnetic readings presented in OttO and Grasso’s interest in the intersection of science and fiction.
Artist:
Laurent Grasso is the recipient of the Meru Art*Science Award in Bergamo, Italy, the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Marcel Duchamp Prize. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at international institutions including the Palais Fesch, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Ajaccio, France; the Hermès Foundation, Tokyo, Japan; Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland; the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal, Canada; Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Florida; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Grasso has been included in several international biennials including the 21st Sydney Biennale, Australia (2018); EVA International, Limerick, Ireland (2018); Kochi, India (2014); Gwangju 9th, South Korea (2012); Manifesta 8, Cartagena/ Murcia, Spain (2010); Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2009); Moscow, Russia (2009); and Busan, South Korea (2004 and 2006).
In addition, he has created numerous public installations, including the permanent and monumental artwork Solar Wind (2016), placed on the Calcia silo’s wall in the suburbs of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, and recently at the Institut de France where he inaugurated a set of onyx sculptures in the inner courtyard.
Currently he is showing a 30-meter-long neon light entitled Visibility is a Trap at the Toronto Biennale.
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