MAISONS/ATELIERS
Opening date: Saturday, April 2, 2022, 2-5 pm | RSVP HERE
Corkin Gallery is pleased to present Maisons/Ateliers, an exhibition of bronze sculpture and works on paper by French artist Vincent Barré. Occupying varied realms of the arts, from architecture to film-making, Vincent Barré has maintained a central presence in the French cultural scene for over 50 years. Barré began his career as an architect in 1974, studying under the famed architect Louis Kahn. Pivoting to sculpture in 1982, Barré began working on wood and metal constructions that respond to architecture and landscape. His large-scale cast iron and bronze sculptures can be found in the public and private spaces of France, Germany and China.
During isolation, Barré began working on a smaller scale with wax in his home/studio in Normandy. The bronzes in Maisons/Ateliers highlight the intimacy and tactility of sculptural form. The warm, sensuous objects embody the human desire for physical contact. The works hold a gentle dynamism that propels the viewer to explore each sculpture in the round. Shown alongside his bronzes, minimal ink monotypes transform the artist’s mastery of form on delicate Chinese paper. Barré exploits the potential of black and white to evoke shifts in perspective and dimensionality.
The making of a wax sculpture in this exhibition is featured in Le bel été (A Beautiful Summer) - a film by Pierre Creton, with the participation of Barré, his partner in life and art. In conjunction with Maisons/Ateliers, the Alliance Française, Toronto will screen Le bel été and host a conversation with Vincent Barré on Wednesday, April 6 at 7pm. The film, inspired by their own experiences, portrays stories of community, love and sensuality in the lives of the inhabitants of a small village in Normandy that receives teenaged African immigrants.
The work of Vincent Barré has been exhibited at major institutions in France including The Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis; The Musée d’art moderne André Malraux in Le Havre; and The musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie in Besançon. He was awarded residencies at MoMA PS1 and Triangle Artists Workshop in New York. Le bel été has been screened at the Vienna International Film Festival; the Marseille International Film Festival; and most recently in the retrospective of films by Creton and Barré in Cinéma du Réel 2021 at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
