Paul de Flers: Black Island

Black Island is simultaneously a fable, and an invitation to undertake a journey. Paul de Flers transports us into a uchronia: a real space becomes a dream or fantasy setting, outside of time.

The island of Pico forms one of the edges of the triangle of the Azores archipelago. A volcano dominates the entire island with its solemn stature. Made of endless lava, the ground consists only of burnt stones, covering the western side of the island with a black crust and volcanic vegetation. Its shores have fashioned a multitude of myths and legends in the artist’s work.

Paul de Flers’ paintings convey a lost paradise, with a stormy, intoxicating atmosphere. By means of  merging colors and blurry edges, the scenes propose the viewer as  witnessing an intimate moment, through a window misted with memory.

— Milena Oldfield, Researcher & Editorial Coordinator at Almine Rech

Also on show:

Mehdi Ghadyanloo: The Untold Stories

An exhibition of new paintings.

On the face of it, Mehdi Ghadyanloo’s current series of paintings is made up of a set of simple components: light and colour. The traditional components of painting. Plus boxes. Painted ones. Open to the front. Acting as a kind of frame. Traditional too you might say. And then, of course, there’s the deployment of all of these – light, colour, boxes – to create the illusion of an enclosed, three- dimensional space.

— Mark Rappolt, Editor-in-Chief of ArtReview and author