NICOLAS MOMEIN

In residence from February to April 2019

The new “terre-plein” (2018) series by Nicolas Momein is part of a cycle of works around the plasticity of the elastomeric material (synthetic rubber) started in 2016. He explores here this kind of monochrome and pictorial variations.

From a distance, their large sizes, juvenile shapes and bright colors, these works could evoke the mischievous and unrestrained Elizabeth Murray’s or Jonathan Lasker’s american abstract painting . But if you’re getting closer, this black spray edge is actually a finger-shaped paste that surrounds a puddle of shimmering color whose imperceptible moirures reveal by attentive eye the liquid origin of the material. If they can cling to the wall and pretend to be paintings, they are nevertheless produced as sculptures, and aptly named “terre-plein”, because they are poured flat in places hemmed by this black resin whose restraining function becomes shape. The close contact between two contrasting materials – the rough paste where the traces of the modeling gesture are visible and the even smoothness of the industrial material – is recurrent in the work of Momein and leads to a tenfold haptic perception of the materials.

Garance Chabert

More details : https://www.nicolasmomein.com/

More details on his residency : artist’s blog