For the group show "Out Run", Speerstra Gallery Paris shares its desire to highlight a generation of outsiders. It's an opportunity to take part in this relentless race towards novelty, and to highlight the rich backgrounds, techniques and styles of the nine artists featured.
With: Azerty, BadYear85, Fuzi, JC Earl, Alonso Alcalde, Léonard von Muralt, Stohead, Pietro Castano and Le Zeste.
For the group show "Out Run", Speerstra Gallery Paris shares its desire to highlight a generation of outsiders. It's an opportunity to take part in this relentless race towards novelty, and to highlight the rich backgrounds, techniques and styles of the nine artists featured. The works illustrate the multiple influences of this generation, broadening the fields of expression: painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and tufting.
"Out Run" is an exploration of the many references of 80s and 90s culture.
In 1986, it was first released as an arcade video game, in which you take the wheel of a Ferrari Testarossa, accompanied by a glamorous blonde, in a setting of infinite perspectives, embodying luxury and escapism. In 2002, the French version also included the song "On roule, on rôde" by 113 featuring the Fonky Family, illustrating the same generation who, after logging thousands of kilometers on screen with the game OutRun, are now driving down the road of social disillusionment. The setting is no longer the same: the housing estates of Vitry or Marseille, with the colors of concrete. Nowadays, we travel by car with friends, escaping from a daily life that's too heavy, in search of uncertain occupations.
The colors, materials and motifs of the works are imbued with the energy of the 80s and 90s: flamboyant, sometimes garish, even flirting with vulgarity. These codes, now perceived differently, evolve in a context where their original value is transformed. The painting on wood by Swiss artist Léonard von Muralt, with its vibrantly colored silver leaf background, is a real eye-catcher. Resembling an automobile racetrack, two rings occupy the space, although in reality they are two separate, closed circuits. Their superimposition creates an illusion, evoking the excesses of today's world. As for Fuzi, his spontaneity and freedom of composition capture the moods that are dear to him: coconut palms, pink flamingos and bikini-clad silhouettes evolve in a universe imbued with violence and gangs, with Kavinsky's "Roadgame" playing in the background.
By awakening collective memories, the exhibition invites us to rediscover elements of our own lives and memories. Though colorful and textured, it questions our reminiscences and the emotions aroused by these works, extending nostalgia into a new space-time.
© Speerstra Gallery
