LOCATION 28 Place des Vosges Paris, France 75003 From May 9 to May 23, the Mark Hachem Gallery at 28 Place des |
Yves Ullens opens his eyes, and sees the world as a collection of lights and colours. Swirling, vibrant patterns appear to him in everyday objects that others might consider banal, captivating him, urging him to capture the magic that fills his gaze. Armed with no more than his camera and his eye, Ullens describes this world he sees to anyone who glimpses his work, drawing the general public out of their melancholy troubles and urging them to see the exquisite elements in all their surroundings. In the upcoming exhibition, Yves Ullens—Recent Works, Galerie Mark Hachem aims to showcase the artist’s masterful exploration of the world around us through light and colour. Ullens possesses an extraordinary instinct for how to capture the subtleties and intensity of light, which allows him to create visually mesmerizing works. His pieces possess a vivacity, a zest to them granted by his use of the kinetic style of photography. He utilises movement to create optical illusions in his work and to give them an animated and vigorous dynamic, bringing his pieces to life. He pushes the boundaries of photography to realise his visions, intensifying the energy and colours of varying forms of light but never altering them with any sort of graphic retouching or enhancing effect. The ability to use light and shadow, to manipulate each in order to achieve an aesthetic goal, is crucial for almost any artist, and Yves Ullens is certainly a master of this skill. His photographs’ vivid colours and patterns draw immediate attention from onlookers and evoke an instantaneous emotional response. Ullens’ work spreads over a series of media, from mounted prints, to 3D wall sculptures on Plexiglass, to honeycombed aluminium sculptures. He transcribes his photographs to be represented in a number of ways, constantly searching for ways to expand his repertoire and explore new platforms on which to present his work. The most recent discovery he has made in this respect was done in tandem with Belgian artist Gauthier Poulain, in a work that transgresses the limits of certain media. This piece, L’Envol, or “the Flight” will be unveiled at the Galerie Mark Hachem exhibition. Born in 1960 in Belgium, Yves Ullens lives and works in Brussels, striving to explore the complexities of light. Following a near-death experience as a child, light naturally became central to his work, holding a key position in his professional and personal life. He uses this to express emotion, on which he places a great deal of emphasis, as his goal is to “take a deliberately aesthetic and sensorial approach to bring additional wellbeing to the audience,” while mixing photography with other forms of art to create something new that transcends the boundaries of any individual style. He is influenced by masters of light such as Monet and Turner, as well as atmospheric and creative geniuses like Vermeer and Picasso. He draws inspiration from an abstract and photographic point from artists such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Thomas Ruff, and Ea Vasko. Ullens works with four major themes of photography—pictorial, kinetic, optic, and urban traces—each of which takes on its own rhythms, allowing him to create his incredible visually stimulating works. |