ronan bouroullec to present first solo exhibition at galerie kreo in london

galerie kreo welcomes ronan bouroullec’s first solo exhibition

from 26 november 2021 to 4 january 2022, ronan bouroullec will present his first-ever solo exhibition at galerie kreo in london. dubbed ’23 bas-reliefs’, the display will introduce an entirely new body of work with a fresh, yet somehow familiar creative language. the featured pieces stand somewhere between painting and sculpture, drawing and design, composed of indistinct ceramic forms that bouroullec creates and assembles himself.

all images © courtesy studio bouroullec

bouroullec’s off-center pieces form a familiar language

using a knife, ronan bouroullec slices the clay to shape the desired forms and places them in a furnace. as the clay is fired, it evolves and becomes subject to a transformed appearance. the artist paints and then, on an aluminium plate, begins to compose a scene of gravity and balance, where forms interact on a shiny monochromatic plane.

‘we could look at ronan bouroullec’s ceramic bas-reliefs and see traces of a language we recognize: the silhouettes of familiar objects, the contours of known landscapes’ shares galerie kreo in the official press release of the exhibition. ‘we might be tempted to look at the work as an alphabet of mere things, think of the pieces ‘objectively’. but as tableaux, the reliefs are not quite right: one has an edge that goes too far, another a circle that’s off-center and about to roll, and still another, a pinkish mass that could topple over.’ the gallery adds.

the poetic character of bouroullec’s pieces

the abstract artworks by bouroullec present something unique and poetic. their soft forms emerge as caressing gestures, while the way they dissolve onto a background feels digital and also deeply analogue. these effects are both visual and tactile, meaning that the pieces invite viewers to observe them and touch them at the same time. in a way, the compositions have a life of their own, taking shape as ‘masses of ceramic breathing in a metal atmosphere, on a planet that is strange but inviting’ as galerie kreo mentions.

like other languages, bouroullec’s seems to have a grammar and syntax. forms engage in repetition and the palette is consistent, like a dialect. even in the slight variations, the works still stick to the ‘rules’. while the finished works have the appearance of precise composition, they’re eventually arranged from separately formed elements. the artist assembles the reliefs only after the individual elements are fired; some inevitably break in the kiln. ‘like sentences, bouroullec’s compositions are sequences of fixed parts. like poetry, they’re subject to randomness.’ galerie kreo explains.