UNMOVEMENT, A SOLO SHOW BY NIELS ‘SHOE’ MEULMAN AT DANYSZ GALLERY - LE MARAIS, PARIS
Through the works in this solo show, Shoe dramatizes the arrogance of capitalism in a neoliberal world where obtaining painting materials is a luxury for many, by driving over expensive cans of paint with a car or carelessly burning freshly painted canvases. This nonchalant attitude is an ironic take on the current socio-economic climate, as much as a thinly veiled critique of today's contemporary art world, often perceived as increasingly elitist. In Shoe's work, the car (a 1992 Buick Park Avenue) is used like a paintbrush, an instrument whose traces create a motif. The car is central to the process and is presented in all its splendor as the obvious source and witness of pictorial signs.
NIELS 'SHOE' MEULMAN ZERO KELVIN (MINUS 273 DEGREES CELSIUS), 2023
spray paint and acrylic on linen 150 x 195 cm
A video of the creation of the canvases, made by the artist's long-time collaborator Sander Lanen, is shown in the exhibition: the car's engine roars, the paint cans are brutally dislocated and pour color onto the white surfaces, which are cut and purged like open wounds. The performative aspect at the heart of this working method recalls the long line of twentieth-century "action painters". From the Catalan artist Antoni Tapiès, who used so-called "poor" materials, to Pollock, who introduced a different form of gesture through his "dripping" technique, to the interactive approach of the Japanese artists of the Gutai movement, the specificity of Shoe's pictorial action explores not only the pictorial residues left on the canvases, but also the spatial aspect of the creative process. Even the burning of the canvases, reminiscent of Alberto Burri's "Combustioni", among others, bears witness to Shoe's attempt to appropriate elements of historical artistic practice and then transpose them into the contemporary. The traces created by the car's wheels can also be seen as a further development in Shoe's practice.
Another of his latest series, "I'm Fine", is presented on the gallery floor. Using a mirror support, which invades the floor, Shoe invites the viewer to become aware of his condition. First arriving at a dismantled vision of his reflection, he can see that all the mirrors contain the same calligraphic phrase: "I'm Fine". This series brings us face to face with ourselves, forcing us to question our personal situation. The mirror is the instrument of the split, because to know, compare and appreciate ourselves, we need to see two of ourselves. But if the mirror enables us to know ourselves, it's not direct knowledge, but rather indirect and discursive knowledge, requiring the intervention of reasoning. With this statement proclaimed by the artist, the viewer questions and affirms himself.
Niels Shoe Meulman (1967) is a visual artist, known for his gestural paintings which reveal vivid traces of graffiti and calligraphy. He revolutionized the art of writing when he initiated the Calligraffiti movement, claiming "a word is an image and writing is painting". Being a graffiti pioneer from Amsterdam, Shoe tagged along with New York counterparts like Dondi White, Rammellzee and Keith Haring in the 1980s. Equally influenced by abstract expressionist painters and pop artists, he gradually found a unique way to translate street attitude to galleries and museums. Experimenting within the traditional medium of paint-on-canvas, but also unafraid to venture into other domains like conceptual installations and poetry, Niels Shoe Meulman keeps pushing the limits of the global urban contemporary art movement.
For more information, please visit:www.danyszgallery.com