bio

Hadrien

Gerenton

Lyon (FR)

,

1987

Lives and works in Rotterdam & Brussels

To understand the work of Hadrien Gerenton and to which generation he belong, the image of the lizard and the nose is most telling. In 2019 New York’s Socrates Sculpture Park commissioned Gerenton, who at the time was making metallic sculptures of lizards and cacti, and Loup Sarion, who creates giant sculptures of human noses, feet and tongues,to make a sculpture for a rooftop garden. The result: a dark metallic burgundy-red lizard entering a giant blue nose. The sculpture created by the duo literally serves as a meeting place of the imaginary worlds of two different young artists and of a new generation as a whole. This is a generation of young artists with a renewed interest in the surreal, such as Ariana Papademetropoulos, Chason Mathams and Loup Sarion. They create their own narratives and imaginary landscapes, and where the props, taken from those landscapes, serve as artworks in the world of the spectator. Shortly after his residency at De Ateliers (2015 - 2017) [fig. 2] and subsequent solo exhibition at Galerie Martin van Zomeren, Gerenton conducted a series of travels to Greece, Morocco and Mexico. In these warm places he gathered cacti to cast into resin sculptures, first and foremost because of their shape and their attributed mythical powers.

As sculptures, or as sculptural elements, these cacti seem to give a sense of awareness to the object. When placed correctly in an installation, it is as if the sculpture knows that a spectator is there, and the sculpture has suddenly become shy.

- Hadrien Gerenton

Later, while traveling in Asia, Gerenton encountered komodo monitors, whose prehistorical forms were also adapted in Gerenton’s body of work. For example for Delirious (2018), an outdoor sculpture exhibition, Gerenton tied two giant lizards, painted in metallic purple and blue hues to trees with dog collars, as if they were two aggressive Dobermann dogs guarding their master’s belongings. In later exhibitions, lizards and cacti were combined into installations that one would almost describe as anti-human since both actors, lizard and cactus, live best in habitats or time-periods in which the human species would not prosper.

Hadrien Gérenton (Fr, 1987) graduated from De Ateliers in 2017 and lives and works between Brussels and Rotterdam. His work has recently been shown at Galerie Martin Van Zomeren (Amsterdam, 2018), Lustwarande (Tilburg, 2019) and Emerige Mecanat (Paris, 2021). His work was most recently acquired by the Centre Pompidou, Paris as well as the Dutch KPMG collection.

Featured artworks & exhibitions

HIGHWAY TO KHLONG / PERFECT

2022

solo exhibition
TARS Gallery
Bangkok

Endless State

2021

group exhibition
Skowhegan alliance
New York (US)

Delirious

2019

group exhibition
Lustwarande
Tilburg

Les Detectives Sauvages

2019

group exhibition
Lustwarande
Tilburg

Finir par Mordre

2019

group exhibition
KUBA
Paris (FR)

Heavy Metal

2018

group exhibition
Galerie Jerome Pauchant
Paris (FR)

Deep State

2017

group exhibition
De Ateliers
Amsterdam

They took his Fries, He took their Lives

2017

group exhibition
Galerie Martin van Zomeren
Amsterdam

Memorabilia (Souvenir)

2017

group exhibition
Alto Refugio
Buenos Aires

A view from hometown in the fog

2017

group exhibition
Gallery Italy
Frankfurt (DE)

Hadrien Gerenton Craving Extravaganza

2017

solo exhibition
Galerie Chantiers Boite Noire
Montpellier

artworks

AUTOMATED REEFS, DEFLATED
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
110 x 67 x 39 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS WITH HOLES
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
111 x 47 x 39 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS, BLOWER
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
110 x 45 x 38 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS, CHIMNEYS
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
100 x 65 x 47 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS, FOUNTAIN
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
100 x 65 x 47 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS, BOLD
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
80 x 65 x 47 cm
Bird of Fragrance
2022
bronze and wax
11 x 20.5 x 7 cm
Pitchblack
2019
epoxy , steel, polyurethane, fiberglass, pigments, stainless steel
240 x 45 x 50 cm
Eventide (mooring)
2019
epoxy , steel, polyurethane, fiberglass, pigments, stainless steel
220 x 45 x 50 cm

gallery exhibitions & fairs

LE VOEU DU FAISAN
LE VOEU DU FAISAN
Christiane Blattmann, Ryan Cullen, Antonia Phoebe Brown, Rob Birza and Hadrien Gerenton
February 25, 2023
April 8, 2023
Art Rotterdam 2023
Art Rotterdam 2023
Hadrien Gerenton
February 8, 2023
February 12, 2023
Negenenveertig en een half
Negenenveertig en een half
Nazif Lopulissa, Ciro Duclos, Daan van Golden, Majda Vidakovic, Rob Renoult, Ido Vunderink, Bert Frings, Lieve Hakkers & Jan van der Ploeg
December 22, 2022
January 13, 2023
Automated Reefs
Automated Reefs
Hadrien Gerenton
April 2, 2022
April 30, 2022