AFM, 2004, installation view, Percy Miller, London.
Press Release
For their inaugural exhibition at new premises Percy Miller are pleased to present a three person show of sculptural works and wall drawing by John Armleder, Sylvie Fleury and Simon Moretti.
Using decorative motifs and notions of style as critical tools the artists have created a playful environment with works which reference design, art history, consumerism and communication.
John Armleder’s basic premise is that art and life should interact at every level. He founded Ecart in 1969, one of the most important alternative spaces in Europe throughout the 1970’s. Greatly influenced by the Fluxus movement, the aim of Ecart was to promote other artists’ work through supporting exhibitions, catalogues, tapes etc. and it is this form of communication and the constant flow of ideas which is fundamental to his work. Zaak Wylde. 1 (f.s.) is Armleder’s most recent furniture sculpture, a series he began in the early ‘70s, where furniture or musical instruments are placed with abstract and geometric paintings in carefully judged chromatic and formal compositions.
Sylvie Fleury’s work comments on society’s obsession with consumerism. In Deep and Dark she hangs a luxurious pink ostrich-feather boa vertically within a tall Perspex case; through combining male and female sexual symbolism she explores the powers of seduction and in preventing us from touching the object, she enhances our sense of desire.
Through the use of collaboration, appropriation and homage, Simon Moretti’s work questions authorship, authenticity and artistic hierarchies. In his object based works he has engaged with a number of references within the history of the avant-garde, as seen, for example in his series of needlepoint versions of the iconic set photographs by Hans Namouth of Jackson Pollock working in his studio and his ceramic work, Portrait of Jacqueline with flowers, based on Picasso’s painting of the same name. Here, Moretti references the geometric paintings of Frank Stella, reinventing the forms and producing a hybrid object through quilting, appliqué and fabric design.
John Armleder’s recent exhibitions include Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, 2004; Playlist, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2004 and Flower Power, Lille, France, 2004.
Earlier this year Sylvie Fleury had a solo exhibition at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich. Previous exhibitions include Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, 2004 and Coollustre, Fondation Lambert, Avignon, France 2003.
Simon Moretti exhibited in and curated Expo21 Strategies of Display, an Arts Council Touring Exhibition 2004 and was most recently in exhibitions at Le Maison Rouge, Paris (L’intime le Collectionneur), Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris and Ideal Standard, Mais, Brussels.
Percy Miller would like to thank Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Caratsch de Pury and Luxembourg and Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris for their kind support.
AFM, 2004, John Armleder, Sylvie Fleury, Simon Moretti, installation view, Percy Miller, London.
Simon Moretti, Untitled, 2004, quilted cotton with satin appliqués, 221 x 176 x 40 cm.
AFM, 2004, installation view with Dark & Deep by Sylvie Fleury and Lubaantun
(Hanab pakal) 2002, wall drawing by John Armleder.
John Armleder, Zakk Wylde.1 (F.S.), 2004, acrylic on canvas and Epiphone electric guitar,
120 x 180 cm, unique
Review
J. ARMLEDER, S. FLEURY AND S. MORETTI
@ Percy Miller Gallery, 5 Vigo St., W1 (020.7734.2100) Tube: Picadilly Circus/Oxford Circus
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With a White Cube move pending and Timothy Taylor, Haunch, Hauser and Sprueth Magers Lee all already in place, the West End is smelling very sexy indeed. Now, formerly of Bermondsey, Percy Miller have not only moved centrally but have also assembled their "sexiest" show to date. No doubt inspired by Simon Moretti's sense of play, the John Armleder gold wall painting (Mexicanish skull pattern) alongside his instrument painting, a Sylvie Fleury bright pink boa and Moretti's own camouflage quilt-sculpture, sit -- tongue firmly in cheek -- between fashion and design, decoration and art, fashion and art consumption. It is a step up in terms of location but a step down in size, and given the smallness of the space, the achievement is all the greater with this loud yet concise show. Perhaps it is a new statement of intent from the gallery's normally quieter and more considered fare; it certainly announces a more critical and playful boundary for their inaugural programme.
Sherman Sam