BEYOND THE FENCE — IN THE RACK ROOM #33
SAMUEL LALIER
Opening THU, MAY 9, 2024, 6pm—9pmMAY 10 — JUNI 8, 2024 [EXTENDED]
Only open by appointment
Contact: sonderlage@lage-egal.net • samsam.lalier@gmail.com
LAGE EGAL [IN THE RACK ROOM]
Liselotte-Herrmann-Str. 26 (HH), 10407 Berlin
We are delighted to invite you to discover the young French artist SAMUEL LALIER, who has moved to Berlin after studying at the École des Beaux-Arts d’Angers and the Kunsthochschule Weissensee, for his first solo exhibition in Germany. Nestled in the backyard that is so characteristic of Berlin’s neighbourhoods, IN THE RACK ROOM presents a selection of his recent paintings, each one more flourishing than the last, which can only mean that we can look forward to a warm spring.
The aim of Samuel Lalier’s pictorial compositions is to establish an open dialogue with reference to themes such as still life, German Romanticism and Surrealism. This prism is traversed by the accumulation of plants, in full bloom and with evergreen foliage, wild plants and flowers, and floral ornaments that verge on the artificial and seem to gradually wither or fade.
His work is also influenced by the digital image, contemporary to our ultra-urbanised societies. Through the use of bright, sometimes even irritating colours, the artist transforms the painting with his analogue palette into a kind of screen, a light-image revealed by the oil paint.
“In my paintings, I try to depict a sensitive and fragile vegetation combining plants, foliage, flowers and branches, reflecting the mysteries and violence of our time. I question the very essence of the plant world and the links it maintains with its contemporary environment. My artistic practice is driven by an urgency and a need to represent this organic landscape, using abstract and figurative images to conceal a fallen and weakened Garden of Eden. The pictorial materiality creates a strange feeling, akin to the experience of sublimation. Inspired by the printed plates of herbariums and the illustrations in botanical books, my imagery is also imbued with climate issues and a form of inevitable disappearance.” (Samuel Lalier, Berlin–Angers, 2024)
