It is in the heart of London’s Mayfair that we find Jean-David Malat for an interview on the occasion of the new exhibition by Icelandic artist Georg Óskar… visible until March 2nd.
Understanding a place, an exhibition… also means being interested in its context… in the meeting between the artist and the gallery. In this area, Jean-David Malat is an adventurer both in his career and in his programming. From Paris to London via Los Angeles… from theater to fashion via Limoges porcelain in an American Dream version… He invents and reinvents himself with a keen sense of discovery… a quest for new challenges and new horizons. Several lives in one? Rather, it is a life with many faces since each experience has been nourished by the previous ones and has contributed to forging the identity of the gallery that we know today. A French person abroad always arouses a form of imagination… of singular exoticism in a cosmopolitan London in perpetual motion… everything becomes possible and stimulating… especially when it comes to art. In 2018, after having tasted the art world for several years, Jean-David Malat opened the doors of the eponymous gallery on Davies Street… a space of expression on two levels… a form of theater… between stage and backstage. However, it is not a unique place for “representations” since the gallery is present internationally, whether through pop-ups, fairs or institutional exhibitions. This diversity is also reflected in the selection of artists presented… an openness to the world and a dialogue between the figurative and the abstract… a selection that is both powerful and off the beaten track. The visitor is both in familiar and unknown territory… a form of travel made up of happy coincidences and wonderful encounters. Henrik Uldalen, Santiago Parra, Natalia Ocerin, Kojo Marfo, Conrad Jon Godly, Georgia Dymock… to name but a few… are part of this artistic spectacle… of this adventure in large formats!
Currently, the gallery presents an exhibition by Georg Óskar Giannakoudakis entitled “Good Night Moon”. Behind this title, which sounds like a gentle invitation to sleep and dreams, we find the expression of parenthood and a form of evening and night ritual… of waking up unexpectedly. This new theme follows the birth of his daughter… with a renewed sense of color and a scent of childhood. However, the artist does not adopt an idealistic, naive or expected vision. He explores the part of light and shadow… by bringing together joy and insomnia, calm and storm, humor and irony… even in the titles or in the lettering on the surface of the canvas ( “Pajamas All Day”, “Surviving Fatherhood”, “Morning coffee”…). While the ADHD now introduces the ABCs… fatherhood takes on the features of a new superhero. We also come across familiar cartoon figures like Mickey or Donald whose physiognomy is altered… questioning the border between dreams and nightmares. It is all the more striking as their colorful innocence comes into contradiction with the virulent sentences which come to the fore like graffiti…. like a sour pop tantrum.
The large formats follow one another like comic strip vignettes… sometimes playing on the diptych to prolong, extend, the subject, the narration. The gesture is lively and the large oil compositions appear very drawn in a mixture of introspection and self-deprecation. Here we find the theatricality of the exhibition. By choosing to hang a work at the back of the gallery, at the end of the perspective, on a wall covered with reproductions of sketches, the artist played the game of immersion in this space. The viewer discovers behind the scenes of the artwork and the preparatory work but also the continuity between the studio and the gallery… An intimacy is created with the spectator, especially as the artist puts himself directly, or indirectly, on stage in his works. He expresses himself through portraits and self-portraits. He lays himself bare in his body, his life and his feelings… from joy to fatigue, from birth to fear… a summary of paradoxical and universal existence!
More information :
https://www.jdmalat.com/exhibitions/78-georg-oskar-good-night-moon
https://www.instagram.com/jdmalatgallery
ABSTRACT MIMESIS 