Seth Price's Thermoformed Paintings at Galerie Chantal Crousel

Seth Price's exhibition at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, from March 12 to April 30, 2011, presents a new series of works that blur the line between painting and sculpture. The rectangular formats are carefully hung on the wall, but their agitated surfaces contradict this initial impression. Each piece begins as small figurative sketches, quickly drawn, then digitized, modified, enlarged, and distorted before being printed onto a plastic sheet. The sheet is then thermoformed over ropes randomly placed on the surface. A layer of enamel, acrylic, or polyurethane is applied next. These successive events and distancing from the initial gesture reinforce the abstract nature of the practice. Price interrogates the ambiguities of the artwork, playing on the critical levels that popular culture artifacts can contain. The series focuses on figuration as a standardized motif replayed differently, evoking satirical drawing and functioning as a recycling machine. An accompanying sound piece tells a story more directly linked to reality, as if the artist felt the need to respond to an urgency of testimony. The review is by Damien Sausset.