Keith Haring à la Citadelle de Saint-Tropez

View of the exhibition Keith Haring à la Citadelle de Saint-Tropez, Saint-Tropez, France. Photo: Simon Schwyzer, Courtesy Editions Sébastien Moreu, Paris 2021. Keith Haring Foundation, 2021

Keith Haring
à La Citadelle de Saint-Tropez

01.07 – 15.11.2021
Citadelle de Saint-Tropez


7 sculptures including 6 monumental and the Pop Shop Tokyo which is an immersive experience in an original work of the artist … This is what the city of Saint-Tropez and the Galerie Enrico Navarra invite you to see and experience during this exhibition. This event of an exceptional quality has received the benevolent endorsement of the representatives of the Keith Haring Foundation and most of the works collected come from private collections or international galleries. If all the sculptures have already been exhibited, the opportunity to admire them in such a context will make your journey and their appreciation incomparable as well as novel.

Views of the exhibition Keith Haring à la Citadelle de Saint-Tropez, Saint-Tropez, France. Photo: Simon Schwyzer, Courtesy Editions Sébastien Moreu, Paris 2021. Keith Haring Foundation, 2021

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Enoc Pérez - Under The Palm Trees

View of the exhibition Under The Palm Trees at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France. Photo : Nicolas Brasseur. © Enoc Pérez

Enoc Pérez
Under The Palm Trees

18.10 – 01.12.2023
Galerie 75 Faubourg


Galerie Enrico Navarra and Galerie 75 Faubourg are delighted to present Under the Palm Trees, its second solo exhibition devoted to the Puerto Rico-born and New York-based artist Enoc Pérez. His latest works were produced in the warm embrace of the Villa Navarra in Le Muy, South of France. In this exhibition, the artist delves into the realm of basic commercial clichés, transcending them to become integral facets of our very identities.

Views of the exhibition Under The Palm Trees at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France. Photo : Nicolas Brasseur. © Enoc Pérez

The foundation of Pérez’s reflection relies on a Puerto Rico that lies in the depths of its being as well as on an extensive archive of documentary material from the 1960s, featuring promotional content for the island. This seminal material carries powerful connotations for both natives and foreigners alike, and Perez masterfully transmutes it into a personal form of artistic expression.

“When I started to make paintings of rum bottles, I made them because they were to me, self-portraits, still life’s, American pop art and lies. Drinking rum never made me popular with women or rich or happy. It made me an alcoholic and still I love those images. Very much like Stockholm syndrome.” Enoc Pérez, September 2023.

Portrait of Enoc Pérez at Villa Navarra, Le Muy, France, 2023. Photo : Loic Thébaud.

View of the exhibition Under The Palm Trees at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France. Photo : Nicolas Brasseur. © Enoc Pérez

Much like in his beloved Puerto Rico, where the island’s dreams and promises often unfold or not, beneath the swaying palm trees, Pérez transports us to the sun-soaked south of France, where the allure of these towering palms becomes a symbol of the region’s identity. Whether those promises manifest or remain in the realm of imagination is irrelevant, for under the palm trees, all dreams are carefully crafted to override any inconvenient realities.

In Pérez’s art, these clichés morph into a powerful representation of our collective identity. Just as in Puerto Rico, where touristy commercial images of resorts, luxury, sensuality, and spirits mirror a complex colonial history and contemporary existence, the artist’s work challenges us to embrace the multifaceted nature of our own identities.

Enter a world where Pérez’s paintings of rum bottles are both, classical still life and American pop art. With an elaborate and poignant touch, he explores the paradoxical allure of these images. The promises that these rum advertisements imply did not made him popular, wealthy, or joyful, but still he loves them and identifies them as his very own. In a way, it’s a journey akin to Stockholm Syndrome, where the captive falls in love with their captor, albeit in this case, it’s the seductive power of these commercial clichés that captivates our imaginations.

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Enoc Pérez

View of the exhibition Enoc Pérez at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France. Photo: Nicolas Brasseur. © Enoc Pérez

Enoc Pérez

22.10 – 03.12.2021
Galerie 75 Faubourg


Galerie Enrico Navarra and Galerie 75 Faubourg are pleased to present their first collaboration with American artist Enoc Pérez. The exhibition includes a selection of recent paintings and drawings, the majority of which are exhibited for the first time, addressing the artist’s favorite themes: interiors, portraits of famous people, and cars, among others.

Views of the exhibition Enoc Pérez at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France. Photo: Nicolas Brasseur. © Enoc Pérez

Born in 1967 in Puerto Rico where he grew up, Enoc Pérez currently lives and works in New York. After studying art at Hunter College (New York), then at the Pratt Institute (New York), Enoc Pérez worked for three years with artist Andrés Bueso. He describes himself as “a husband, a father, a painter, a Puerto Rican, an American” (Enoc Pérez interviewed by Stéphane Timonier, August 2021). Pérez was represented among others by Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Acquavella Gallery, before joining Ben Brown Fine Arts in 2019. His works are also included in several public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco).

Portrait of Enoc Pérez at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France, 2021. Photo : Nicolas Brasseur.

Crash, 2021. Photo : Nicolas Brasseur. © Enoc Pérez

At the end of the 90s, Enoc Pérez made a series of portraits of women he secretly admired. In the early 2000s, his meeting with Carole, who would become his wife, immediately impacted the subjects of his works: he began his exploration of architectural forms, one of the major and most recognizable themes of his work. Around 2018, on the recommendation of his mentor Peter Brant, Pérez began to explore the interiors. His paintings of buildings and interiors are like cultural portraits frozen in a time, in a place, evoking the past, the present and the future, deliberately devoid of any human presence. While the architectures are created as a tribute, the interiors are more of an ode. Each chosen room is directly linked to a person Pérez admires or finds intriguing: artists, musicians, celebrities. During the lockdown, he diversifies his subjects: cars in flames, airplanes, and a return to architectural imagery.

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Renk - Voyages sur le motif

Renk at île Bruc, Port Blanc, Bretagne, France, 2020. Photo : Rodolphe Darblay. © Renk

Renk
Voyages sur le motif

27.01 – 07.04.2023
Galerie 75 Faubourg


Galerie 75 Faubourg collaborates with Galerie Enrico Navarra to present an exhibition of the artist Renk, showcasing a selection of his most recent works on canvas from the series Voyages sur le motif. Painted in seven places from 2020 to 2022, 13 of the 24 canvases are on view today at Galerie 75 Faubourg, and the last 11 canvases will be displayed at Villa Navarra (Le Muy, France) this summer. The exhibition also reveals all the stages of their creation through videos.

Views of the exhibition Voyages sur le motif at Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, France. Photo : Fabrice Gousset. © Renk

Born Walig Nicolet in Rennes in 1987, he started tagging in 2000 with the blaze 100REMOR after seeing a TV report about graffiti. A few years later, he met several taggers and graffiti enthusiasts during his training in communication in Bagnolet. He then changed his name to Renkar, before choosing Renk in 2007, which becomes his artist name. In 2011, after a revelation during a trip to the Sinai desert in Egypt, Renk fully dedicates himself to paintings on canvas.

Portrait of Renk, Paris, France, 2022. Photo : Rodolphe Darblay

Piscine de Dinard, Juillet 2021, 2021. Photo : Rodolphe Darblay. © Renk

Started in Paris, the series Voyages sur le Motif is mostly the result of several stays in Brittany. Each canvas was painted in front of nature, facing the sky, and bears the name of its place of creation: Champ de Mars, Dinard, Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, Île-de- Bréhat, Crozon, Île Bruc, Belle-Île… Renk follows the path of the impressionists and, as they did, carries his equipment to paint outdoors, without prior sketch. He paints “sur le motif”, “on the spot”.

Self-taught artist, he uses spray paint to represent skies in which the colors fade to reveal the harmony. The sky is at the center of his search, not for its picturesque effect but to illustrate, with spontaneity, the variations of colors, shadows and lights. These works are an accumulation of his tag “Renk”, in different sizes and colors, endlessly repeated until it disappears.

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Résonance, Jean-Michel Basquiat & l'Univers Kongo

View of the exhibition Résonance, Jean-Michel Basquiat et l’Univers Kongo at Galerie Gradiva, Paris. Photo: Diane Arques, ADAGP, Paris, 2022. Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Résonance, Jean-Michel Basquiat
et l'Univers Kongo

07.09 – 19.11.2022
Galerie Gradiva


From 7 September to 19 November 2022, Galerie Gradiva will host an unprecedented aesthetic experiment in its spaces at 9 quai Voltaire, Paris: “Résonance, Jean-Michel Basquiat et l’Univers Kongo”. This exhibition is a compelling visual dialogue between works by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960- 1988) and a selection of imposing power figures from Kongo tradition, on loan from the Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa. “Résonance” is a deep dive into the heart and soul of these works.

Views of the exhibition Résonance, Jean-Michel Basquiat et l’Univers Kongo at Galerie Gradiva, Paris. Photo: Diane Arques, ADAGP, Paris, 2022. Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Born in 1960 in New York to a Puerto Rican mother and a Haitian father, Jean-Michel Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn. A self-taught artist, very early on he frequented galleries, read extensively and listened to music. He had an insatiable curiosity, observed the world with a keen eye and absorbed everything: boxing, cinema, jazz, blues, hip-hop, comics, literature and art history. As a Black citizen in Ronald Reagan’s conservative white America, he daily witnessed and suffered from the discrimination and oppression inflicted on African Americans. His Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage led him to take an interest in the traditions of the African diaspora, which would echo continually through his own work.

Portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984. Photo : Christopher Makos.

Nkisi Nkonde “maloango” (Kongo culture), Tshela region. Wood (Canarium schweinfurthi), pigments, fetish material, mirror, nails and iron blades. Height: 71 cm Collection of the RMCA, exchanged with the Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire (1979), acquired from E. Dartevelle (1937)

Nkisi nkondi were powerful charms or fetishes in for certain Kongo peoples from what is now Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Rare and costly to make, the nkisi nkondi were employed by a nganga (ritualist) to serve the needs of the community. They had several functions and were often used to cast spells, ward off misfortune, chase down evildoers and ndoki (witches) or help heal certain diseases. Closely linked to political power, a potent nkondi was a source of wealth and prestige for a village. Tribal chiefs could “hire out” their nkondi to villages without their own. When not in use in public ceremonies, nkondi were housed in special locations and placed under the watch of one or more guards.

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Renk - Voyages sur le motif - Part II

View of the exhibition Voyages sur le motif – Part II at Villa Navara, Le Muy, France. Photo : Loic Thébaud. © Renk

Renk
Voyages sur le motif – Part II

03.07 – 15.09.2023
Villa Navarra


Following the exhibition in Paris, Galerie Enrico Navarra presents at Villa Navarra the continuation of the series Voyages sur le motif by artist Renk, by appointment only. Painted in seven places from 2020 to 2022, the last eleven canvases in the series will be displayed all summer long in this space designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti. The exhibition also reveals all the stages of their creation through videos.

Views of the exhibition Voyages sur le motif – Part II at Villa Navara, Le Muy, France. Photo : Loic Thébaud. © Renk

Born Walig Nicolet in Rennes in 1987, he started tagging in 2000 with the blaze 100REMOR after seeing a TV report about graffiti. A few years later, he met several taggers and graffiti enthusiasts during his training in communication in Bagnolet. He then changed his name to Renkar, before choosing Renk in 2007, which becomes his artist name. In 2011, after a revelation during a trip to the Sinai desert in Egypt, Renk fully dedicates himself to paintings on canvas. “One evening, while watching the sunset, Walig has an epiphanic moment. The sky and the colours seemed to speak to him. The message was clear and concise: ‘painting will be your whole life’. (David Rosenberg, Renk, Éditions Skira, 2021)

Portrait of Renk, Le Muy, France, 2023. Photo : Loic Thébaud.

Jardin, Île Vierge, Crozon, octobre 2022 (soir), 2022. Photo : Loic Thébaud. © Renk

Started in Paris, the series Voyages sur le Motif is mostly the result of several stays in Brittany. Each canvas was painted in front of nature, facing the sky, and bears the name of its place of creation: Champ de Mars, Dinard, Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, Île-de- Bréhat, Crozon, Île Bruc, Belle-Île… Renk follows the path of the impressionists and, as they did, carries his equipment to paint outdoors, without prior sketch. He paints “sur le motif”, “on the spot”.

Self-taught artist, he uses spray paint to represent skies in which the colors fade to reveal the harmony. The sky is at the center of his search, not for its picturesque effect but to illustrate, with spontaneity, the variations of colors, shadows and lights. These works are an accumulation of his tag “Renk”, in different sizes and colors, endlessly repeated until it disappears.

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