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new paintings
Solo exhibition
New York- The Jack Tilton Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the French artist Delphine Courtillot on March 30th, from 6-8. In her first solo show in New York, the Amsterdam based artist will present her paintings, gouache on paper, in which a subtle injection of ambiguity blurs the gap between the ordinary and the fantastic. The work will be on display until May 5th.
The exhibition presents a series of night scenes paintings by Courtillot, which are based on the artist’s own carefully staged photographs. Her paintings of landscapes at night containing archetypical characters such as maids and nuns are often imbued with a sense of mystery and magic. Visceral and violently lit, and lacking any straightforward story lines, the scenes emit a spooky familiarity, recognizable but uncertain. The works provoke the viewer to survey this ambiguity, questioning whether the characters are in the middle of something banal or tragic, and appreciate the mystery in both. In her paintings the conclusion stays open; the enigma is turned into light.
“Delphine Courtillot’s artistic point of departure is centered, so it seems, around the absence of origin. With regard to an unequivocal narrative source, the artesian ancestry of the individual works or the actors in her ‘mise en scène’, Courtillot sabotages any reference to their origin in favor of the way they function artistically between themselves... With regard to the absence of authorship, a remarkable play becomes visible in the transition from photography to painting. While Courtillot’s gouaches mask the presence of the author since her ‘hand’ is guided by a photograph, the author of her photographic work, on the other hand, becomes explicitly visible.... In Courtillot’s images, the camera seems to claim its own ‘personality’ through the technical deficiencies displayed in the result.… The camera as ‘inert matter’ thus becomes a lively commentator, as it were, a crown witness of a vanished event.” *
Delphine Courtillot was born in Paris in 1972. She studied art at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She lives and works in Amsterdam and has previously exhibited her work at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in Los Angeles (2005) and at The Armory Show (2005). Other solo exhibitions include the Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam and TENT in Rotterdam. Her artist residencies include Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, China (2006), Kunst en Complex in Rotterdam (2003), United Sardines Factories in Bergen, Norway (2002) and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (1999).
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Office dA
Transliterations
March 30- May 5, 2007
New York City - The Tilton Gallery is pleased to present “Transliterations” a show by Boston-based architecture and design firm Office dA. In the exhibit, which will run from March 30th to May 7th, the award-winning firm will explore their own evolution over the last 15 years from handmade drawings and models to the digital techniques of current use.
By presenting their work, Office dA will reveal the profound shift that has transformed architecture over the last decade and a half. Historically, the practice of architecture has been reliant on the production of drawings and models. But now these carefully constructed handmade geometries are making way for the precise digital assemblies of recent times. An assemblage of Office dA’s work will bring this change into close inspection, showing how this old craft has been irrevocably redefined.
The practice of architecture is, in essence, a negotiation between construction techniques, known as tectonics, and the image of the building, the aesthetics. Digital technology has impacted both of these, therefore changing the architectural process completely. Office dA’s work seizes the creative possibilities in this change. Their research focuses on the confluence of detailing, materials, and technology, creating a unique design process that encourages invention. The exhibit will show, step by step, how the firm has successfully and creatively incorporated technological advances into their work over the last 15 years.
Led by principal partners Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani, Office dA’s work ranges from furniture, to urban design and infrastructure, with a constant focus on architecture. The firm embraces the challenges of each project, taking a sharp look at the peculiarities of the site, the requirements of the program, and the specifics of a target audience – all of which become the catalysts for their ingenuity. Their blend of rigor and sensitivity has allowed them to develop projects throughout the globe, always combining elements of local craft and tradition with global and contemporary architectural techniques.
Recent projects include the main library for the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, the Helior House Gas Station in Los Angeles, as well as the first phase of the Tongxian Art Center in Beijing. Currently under construction, the firm also designed the Macallen building, the first LEED-certified, environmentally sensitive, multi-housing building in Boston with over 140 condominium units. Office dA also won the first place award in the Villa Moda Competition for a mixed use building in Kuwait. Other accolades include an Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as nine Progressive Architecture Awards, in both architecture and urban design.
Previously, the firm’s work has appeared as part of exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the ICA in Philadelphia and Yale, the Max Protetch Gallery in New York, and the Venice Biennale. Furthermore, Office dA’s work in the exhibit “Fabrications: The Tectonic Garden,” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, was lauded in the New York Times, among other publications.
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