Art Rotterdam 2023

Hadrien Gerenton

Gerenton’s work of recent years consists of anthropomorphic, organic and chemical figures that seem to have grown into what one might call an ecosystem. There is a a hidden narrative to this vast vocabulary of shapes. A narrative within an ecosystem where the human species has long since ceased to be a defining factor. In Hadrien’s world, nature has regained territory, slowly removing the scars of its painful human history. Gerenton seems to utilize strategies from Surrealism, to seemingly deal with phenomena discussed in the writings of ecological and ontological writers such as Graham Harman, Timothy Morton and Donna Haraway. In her text on the work of Gerenton, the french art critic Ingrid Luquet-Gad (ARTFORUM / Flash Art / Cura) put Gerenton’s work in direct connection to the global climate crisis:

Hadrien Gérenton’s sculptures embody the advent of a new materiality, as in a post-human nature, in which any original purity is no more than a vague mythological tale. Whether they are cacti, moulded in a mix of varied materials standing up like hybrid people, or platforms, between sculpture and display, reenacting an unchanged domesticity, the modernist heritage is tainted with the confusion that can exist between reigns. An alloy as a result from voluntarily not fully mastered process, each sculpture is radically unique, each owns a kind of knowledge that is no longer universal but located. Thus, just like sensitive chemical fossils, the works recreate our own overwhelmed ecosystem, where nature and culture have merged to compose a mutant panoramic view.

- Ingrid Luquet-Gad (translated from French)

For the booth at Art Rotterdam 2023, Gerenton plans to present different media; watercolors, sculptures in the midst of an installation reminding an urban architecture made of metal pipes and connections. The architecture-like environment of the booth is a thread that unites the different works as if they are in need of a human environment/ atmosphere to fully exist. The sculptures, more or less figurative (lizards, cacti,..) would be a statement for the narrative, where any viewers could wander around the improbable vegetalized and animalized ecosystem. The watercolors act as something more intimate and less direct, like a pause in this uncanny garden. They would act as scenes disconnected from a rational world and be a gate to unknown projections and possibilities.

preview

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exhibition

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artworks

Pitchblack
Hadrien Gerenton
Pitchblack
2019
epoxy , steel, polyurethane, fiberglass, pigments, stainless steel
240 x 45 x 50 cm
Eventide (mooring)
Hadrien Gerenton
Eventide (mooring)
2019
epoxy , steel, polyurethane, fiberglass, pigments, stainless steel
220 x 45 x 50 cm
the savage detectives
Hadrien Gerenton
the savage detectives
2019
steel ,epoxy, epoxy clay, fiber glass, pigments , polyurethane paint, varnish
255 x 45 x 50 cm
monitor with blue hands
Hadrien Gerenton
monitor with blue hands
2021
steel ,epoxy, epoxy clay, fiber glass, pigments , polyurethane paint, varnish
210 x 95 x 35 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS, DEFLATED
Hadrien Gerenton
AUTOMATED REEFS, DEFLATED
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
110 x 67 x 39 cm
AUTOMATED REEFS, BLOWER
Hadrien Gerenton
AUTOMATED REEFS, BLOWER
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
110 x 45 x 38 cm

artworks

AUTOMATED REEFS, DEFLATED
AUTOMATED REEFS, DEFLATED
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
110 x 67 x 39 cm
€ 4.400,-
AUTOMATED REEFS, BLOWER
AUTOMATED REEFS, BLOWER
2022
steel, carbon epoxy clay, plaster, oil paint, epoxy, fiberglass, pigments, varnish
110 x 45 x 38 cm
€ 4.400,-
monitor with blue hands
monitor with blue hands
2021
steel ,epoxy, epoxy clay, fiber glass, pigments , polyurethane paint, varnish
210 x 95 x 35 cm
€ 5.600,-
Pitchblack
Pitchblack
2019
epoxy , steel, polyurethane, fiberglass, pigments, stainless steel
240 x 45 x 50 cm
€ 5.600,-
Eventide (mooring)
Eventide (mooring)
2019
epoxy , steel, polyurethane, fiberglass, pigments, stainless steel
220 x 45 x 50 cm
€ 5.600,-
the savage detectives
the savage detectives
2019
steel ,epoxy, epoxy clay, fiber glass, pigments , polyurethane paint, varnish
255 x 45 x 50 cm
€ 5.600,-