Damien Cadio – Á la Solidarité

Damien Cadio – Á la Solidarité
Saturday, March 4th until Sunday, April 2nd

Gerhard Hofland is proud to present Á la Solidarité by Damien Cadio (1975, FR). This is the first solo exhibition by the artist in the Netherlands.

To create figurative paintings in a world already dominated by images is an act of reconsideration. The works of Damien Cadio emerge from an archive of images collected by the artist from magazines, cinema, the internet, or from photographs taken by the artist himself. By exalting these existing images into the realm of painting, he rips them out of their original context, and restores their aura within an age of mechanical and digital reproduction. At the same time, this mechanism disorients and suspends the gaze of the spectator, and questions the value and meaning of images within our visual culture.

Damien Cadio delivers striking paintings. His exuberant skill generates beautiful images and enables the artist to mould his own visual world, but his style does not just show the painterly reality of the image. By using elements of overexposure, cinematic angles and effects, the artist addresses the image’s mysterious but recognisable origin outside of painting: his subjects appear to be caught momentarily by a flash of light, violently taken from their original context. Through this process of reframing, what happens outside of the image is as important as what is shown within it, as there always appears a reference to a narrative, a certain tension; to that what happens outside of the frame of the painting.

It is within this relationship between the framing by the artist, the appearance of the image as a singular and painted object, and its reference to the narrative that surrounds the image from the outside, that allows the spectator to sharpen his or her senses, to be surprised, triggered, and to admire images in their unique aura.

Damien Cadio (1975, Mont Saint-Aigan, FR) lives and works in Berlin. In 2014 he won the Antoine Marin Prize in Arcuel. In 2009 he was nominated for the Prix Ricard. He exhibited among other places at Almine Rech in Brussels and Eva Hober in Paris.

Opening: Saturday 4 March from 17:00 hours