EXHIBITIONS
Yann Gerstberger “ECCHYMOSES”
Dates: Jan 21 – Feb 18, 2023
Location: Taka Ishii Gallery (complex665)
Opening reception: Saturday, Jan 21, 18:00 – 20:00
The gallery will implement necessary measures to prevent coronavirus infections.
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present “ECCHYMOSES,” a solo exhibition by Yann Gerstberger, a French painter based in Mexico, from Saturday, Jan 21 until Saturday, Feb 18, 2023.
For his first solo show at the gallery and in Asia, Gerstberger will present a series of five medium size paintings of collages assembled from mixed fabrics, glued and sewn onto canvas and augmented with oil pastel. The exhibition also includes one large-scale tapestry produced with an original technique conceived by the artist: he glues dyed by hand fibers of cotton (originally from mops) on rug to form colorful surfaces, mixed with industrial fabric.
A bruise or hematoma is a mark on the human body caused by the presence of blood trapped below the surface of the skin. It occurs when an injury breaks small blood vessels but does not break the skin. They generally appear as a bodily response resulting from a blow or trauma. These marks can appear not only on the flesh but also on internal organs or bones.
The exhibition takes the idea of ecchymosis as a pictorial metaphor, when the body is exposed to an injury which generates a stain on it, an abstraction of shape and color appears that changes and transforms constantly through its recovery. These thoughts began to generate the series, adding to the reflection on the fragility of the body and its marks, a parallel is created to an investigation on the oldest forms of life such as prehistoric insects, beings that have managed to survive and evolve at various geological epochs, which despite the apparent fragility of their bodies, carry with them evolutionary processes that have allowed them to continue in this world despite adversities, like ecchymosis being a self-healing process, these insects have adapted to their environment to continue flying.
Yann Gerstberger (b. 1983, France) lives and works in Mexico City and Puerto Escondido. His work has been exhibited at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; MO.CO., Montpellier; Museo MATE, Lima; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. Recent projects include “A Mangrove at Dusk”, Museo MATE, Lima and the NGV Triennale, Ian Potter Centre, Melbourne, among others.
