Raw Goo: Galerie Déborah Zafman's Inaugural Exhibition

Galerie Déborah Zafman moved from its small space on rue Chapon to a double, high-ceilinged venue on passage des Gravilliers in Paris, inaugurating the new location with the exhibition "Raw Goo" (September 15–October 25, 2007). The show, subtitled "Laboratoire des suppositions," featured an orgy of emotionally charged paint and retina-striking images. Works by gallery artists explored the body—its heaviness, excrescences, wounds, putrefactions, luxuriant joy, and sexuality. Included were Pascal Pillard's flayed figures, Stéphane Belzère's organs in jars, and Raynald Driez's erotic, acidic figures. Sculpture, notably two grotesque heads by Michel Gouéry, echoed the roughness and excess. Zafman, who describes her relationship with painting as intensely emotional, also included a 1954 still life of fish on a plate by Maurice Rocher—a sober, unfashionable work that she argues points toward a simplicity painting may eventually seek after exploring more tortuous paths.