Antoine Levi, Paris
Daniel Jacoby’s (Lima, PE, 1985) presentation for ART-O-RAMA 2017 takes its roots in the film Ahold of Get the Things To, made for his 2014 exhibition of the same title at Antoine Levi gallery in Paris. In the film, a climbing gym serves as the futuristic scenario for a succession of dialogues abstractly connected by the reappearance of three animal characters: a Whale, a Tortoise and a Parrot. Their conversations go in and out a meta-film that confuses itself with the one we’re watching.
For his installation, Jacoby has chosen to further develop facets of the film that seem to come together through the idea of artificiality. A customized stainless steel axe painted with camouflage patterns tied thanks to climbing accessories is hanging in the middle of the booth. A recurrent interest of Jacoby in the poetical values behind craftsmanship has driven him to work hand in hand with one maker for these elements.
Piotr Makowski proposes two large-scale paintings playing and echoing with Jacoby’s installation shapes and with the overlap of elements on flat dimension. Those canvases, according to the author’s intention, are abstract forms melted in multi-layer compositions, where each level takes a determined definition upon a closer observation; each element stands out, creating wide abstract mental geographical landscapes.
Makowski thinks in geometrical figures and through them, he communicates with the world. This is why his paintings are lacking narration. They are the effect of the intellectual, analytic fantasy and the never-ending negotiations with the flat surface of the canvases.