In case you occur to be Antwerp this week, and perhaps you’re, Laurent Proux, one among our favourite French painters, is opening Out of the Blue with GNYP Gallery.Â
In his expressive, large-format works, Proux (b. 1980; France) levels people within the subject of rigidity between trade and nature within the context of twenty first century’s late capitalism. Depictions of staff in workplaces, factories and warehouses are juxtaposed with light-flooded scenes of individuals and nature. Whereas the real looking depictions of the working and manufacturing unit atmosphere have a sober – maybe sobering – high quality, Proux makes use of highly effective and expressive stylistic means in his depictions of nature. The interaction of the works confronts the viewer with the riddle of the human nature within the current day, which is to be deciphered in its multi-layered ranges. What’s the (un)pure? Is it individuals in an industrial context, protected by their garments and a monotonous every day routine, or is it the bare physique on the mercy of nature, caught between deformation and the instinctive freedom of natural tendencies? Proux provides no clear reply – there are hints of hope and decline in each worlds. The works seem as multi-layered mirrors of human identification and lifestyle, inviting viewers to seek out themselves in Proux’s ambivalent worlds.
