NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN

NAIRY BAGHRAMIAN
03.04.2020 > 20.09.2020

Nairy Baghramian conceives of sculpture as the link between questions of a formal order and issues of meaning. At first glance, her work is striking because of a certain sensuality of form, underlined every so often by a subtle play of colors. The works often appear to be unstable, striving for balance yet utterly at ease with their fragility. Wax, a material both fluid and solid, which is often used in sculpture for modeling and molds, comprises an integral part of her oeuvre, often coating metallic structures. As a counterpoint to the history of art, the artist summons up the world of interior design, as well as the paramedical field. This results in a volatility and an organicism which run counter to monumental sculpture. By focusing upon a history of forms that range from the domestic and fragile to the decorative and artisanal, the artist virtually contaminates the history of art with its excluded and denigrated underside.

In this exhibition at Nimes, Baghramian will be establishing a dialogue with the Carré d’Art’s architecture by Norman Foster, as transparent and aerial as it is rigid and authoritarian, as well as the monumental sculpture of Ellsworth Kelly, located in the foyer of the building.

Nairy Baghramian (born in 1971) currently lives in Berlin. This internationally recognized artist has recently shown her work at the Mudam in Luxembourg, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen, and the latest Venice Biennale. She is working on a new piece for the Autumn 2019 Festival Performa in New York.

This will be her first museum exhibition in France.