Hubert Le Gall | A Greek Fantasy
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Overview
Twenty First is delighted to share A Greek Fantasy – a truly unique exhibition by artist Hubert Le Gall at the Villa Kerylos, a national historic monument located in the South of France. Featuring thirty artworks made specially for the occasion, A Greek Fantasy is a poetic and loving encounter with the Villa Kerylos museum, itself an extraordinary site of architectural beauty.
"The “Greek Fantasy” project was born two years ago when the Institut de France invited the artist to create a body of work specifically designed to play within the dreamy walls and gardens of the Villa Kerylos, a magical and opulent Greek Revivalist home built in the early 1900s by French archaeologist Theodore Reinach. The artworks which sprung from the verdant imagination of Hubert Le Gall glide among genders, styles, and time periods, echoing the stories ingrained in the surrounding Greek architecture. The resulting artistic achievement reaches levels of joy and surprise that few contemporary creators surpass."
The exhibition is now open to the public and will run throughout the summer until September 26th. For more information and opening hours visit The Villa Kerylos website or contact Twenty First Gallery.
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ARTWORKS
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Hubert Le Gall, Le Ruban d'Aphrodite, 2021
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Hubert Le Gall, Apollon, 2021
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Hubert Le GallSecrétaire Pégase Desk, 2018
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Hubert Le Gall, La Fureur de l'Hippocampe Side Table, 2020
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Featured Artist
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Hubert Le Gall
Born in 1961 in Lyon, France, Hubert Le Gall is self taught in sculpture and design and has reigned for more than two decades as a celebrated figure on the international design scene. He works with a small team at his studio in Montmartre, Paris, which once served as the atelier of French Post-Impressionist Pierre Bonnard, and also collaborates with French artisans bearing generations of technical expertise to bring his sculptural design works to life. Known for his witty approach to functional pieces and design objects, Le Gall is inspired by archetypal imagery from art history such as Andy Warhol’s daisies, Roy Lichtenstein’s sunsets, and Jean-Pierre Raynaud’s pots, creating unique pieces and small editions built from classic materials such as bronze, brass, exotic woods, and velvet. Making lavish use of fine furniture craft techniques including marquetry, gold leaf, and Lesage embroidery, Le Gall pushes the limits of his craft with what he calls “in between objects” that stand halfway between sculpture and decor, questioning the imperative to functionality. Plants and animals are recurring themes within Le Gall’s oeuvre of furniture, lighting, and decorative objects: anthropomorphic shapes which suggest allegories of desire, innocence, and our animal nature, demonstrating the artist’s poetic spirit and sense of humor united with a fondness for luxury. Le Gall’s work is found in many prestigious private and public collections worldwide, including Musée La Piscine in Roubaix and Montreal’s Musée des Beaux-Arts. He has held solo exhibitions at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Château Borély in Marseille, the Musée de Beaux-Arts in Riom, and at Villa Kérylos at the French Centre de Monuments Historiques. In tandem with his work as an artist, he has also worked for two decades as a scenographer and consultant for large museums in France, including the Jacquemart-André and Musée Maillol, as well as the Grand Palais and Musée d’Orsay, where he helped stage exhibitions of Claude Monet and Pierre Bonnard respectively. Admired by top architects and designers such as Peter Marino, Caroline Sarkozy, and Jacques Garcia, Le Gall’s sculptures and furniture appear in Dior boutiques, and he has also collaborated with distinguished French brands Ruinart and Hermes.
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