Notes from Paris

Part Two

Sascha Behrendt

Issy Wood, Self portrait 1 (detail), 2021, oil on linen. © Issy Wood, courtesy of the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, Michael Werner, New York, and private collection, London. Photo: Stephen James

In Notes from Paris, part two, contributing editor Sascha Behrendt visits Issy Wood’s solo exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations, and American Mythologies at The Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection.

ISSY WOOD: STUDY FOR NO

Lafayette Anticipations
Fondation Galeries Lafayette
October 18, 2023—January 7, 2024

Issy Wood performing at her exhibition, Study For No at Lafayette Anticipations. Image courtesy of the author

Humorous and unexpected, Study For No is a three-floor spread of gorgeously uncanny paintings, furniture, and porcelain sets.

I am familiar with this British artist’s work from shows at the Michael Werner Gallery in New York and, recently, Carlos/Ishikawa in London. Still, this Paris survey included her own witty yet earnest texts alongside the paintings. Vulnerable yet forthright, they inform Wood’s obsessive close-ups of clocks, gaping mouths, and meditations on men’s mid-life crises as luxury car upholstery. Her subjects are painted with soft, feathery brushstrokes, sometimes on velvet, sometimes canvas, evoking queasy scenes through a somber, dimmed palette that may include in a corner a floating asparagus or quartz watch. The effect on the viewer is of being submerged in a surreal, hushed otherworld.

I was lucky to experience Wood’s one-off concert downstairs after hours. Intimate and low-key on vocals and guitar, her music shares her painting intelligence with its terse, poetic, internal logic.

Issy Wood, Intervention Study, 2022, oil on linen. © Issy Wood, courtesy of the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, Michael Werner, New York, and private collection, London. Photo: Damien Griffiths

Issy Wood, Into the darkness, 2018, oil on linen. © Issy Wood, courtesy of the artist, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, Michael Werner, New York, and Bianca and Christie Chu Collection. Photo: Stephen James

Issy Wood, Study for No (installation views), Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, October 18, 2023—January 4, 2024. Photos: Pierre Antoine, courtesy of Lafayette Anticipations

AMERICAN MYTHOLOGIES

Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection
Through February 2024

Mike Kelley, Kandors Full Set (detail), 2005-2009. 21 cities: colored urethane resin; 21 bottles: hand-tinted Pyrex; 18 bottle corks: silicone rubber and colored urethane resin; 6 bases for the bottles: MDF, plywood, Plexiglas, and lighting; 20 round bases for the cities: MDF, plywood, tempered glass, and lighting. Varying dimensions. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen. Pinault Collection. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved. © ADAGP, Paris, 2023

Here we have a selection of artist exhibitions featuring artists keen on deconstructing the fantasies and mythologies of America. A highlight is a series of key works by the prolific late, great Mike Kelley, particularly a last, unfinished project before he died called Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions, a re-staging of high-school yearbook events.

Mike Kelley

Mike Kelley, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions #27 (Gospel Rocket) (detail), 2004-2005. Installation and video projections, variable dimensions. © 2005 Fredrik Nilsen, all rights reserved. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved. © ADAGP, Paris, 2023

Mike Kelley, Ghost and Spirit (installation view), Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, October 13, 2023—February 19, 2024. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All rights reserved. Image courtesy of the author

Other artists include re-appreciated Lee Lozano and Mira Schor (one of the few participants other than Judy Chicago, of feminist Womanhouse,1972, still going strong) as well as the offbeat, fearless Ser Serpas with her radical improvisations that hold an edgy precarious logic.

Lee Lozano

Lee Lozano, No title, 1962, lead pencil on paper, 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches, Pinault Collection. © The Estate of Lee Lozano, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

Lee Lozano, No title/empty, 1963, lead pencil and crayon on paper, 29 x 23 inches, Pinault Collection

Lee Lozano, No title, 1962, lead pencil, crayon, and collage on paper, 17 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches, Pinault Collection. © The Estate of Lee Lozano, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

Hollis Frampton, Lee Lozano, 1963, silver gelatin print, 8 x 10 inches. © Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery © Hollis Frampton

Mira Schor

Mira Schor, Moon Room (installation view), Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, September 20, 2023 — January 22, 2024. Image courtesy of the author

Mira Schor, Mask, July 10, 1977, dry pigment, ink, acrylic and varnish on rice paper, 18 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches. Pinault Collection

Mira Schor, Mask, July 10, 1977, dry pigment, ink, acrylic and varnish on rice paper, 18 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches. Pinault Collection

Ser Serpas

Ser Serpas, Untitled, 2023. Pinault Collection

Ser Serpas, Untitled, 2023. Pinault Collection

Ser Serpas, I Fear (j’ai peur) (installation view), Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, September 20, 2023 — January 22, 2024. Image courtesy of the author

François Pinault shows work in Paris that is as courageous and thought-provoking as the best art-thought centers in the world. There were a few Mike Kelley works displayed from his collection that I had not seen before, which were brilliant. This show is a good one.

Issy Wood
Study For No
Lafayette Anticipations
Fondation Galeries Lafayette
October 18, 2023—January 7, 2024
Paris

Mike Kelley, Lee Lozano, Mira Schor, Ser Serpas
American Mythologies
Bourse de Commerce
Pinault Collection
Through February 2024
Paris

Editor Sascha Behrendt is a writer with an in-depth knowledge of arts and culture in the US and UK. Interviews and profiles include artists Stan Douglas, Arthur Jafa, Sakiko Nomura, Walter Van Beirendonck, Francesca Woodman and Wolfgang Tillmans. She has been part of the editorial content team at Avant Arte, a pioneering platform for emerging and blue-chip artists, and writes for the Sasson Soffer Foundation in New York.