Gaep at miart 2024 with new works by Théo Massoulier

04 April 2024

We are pleased to announce that Théo Massoulier will be the subject of a single artist presentation at miart 2024 – Milan’s international modern and contemporary art fair.

On view from April 12 to 14 at Allianz MiCo, Gaep’s booth will showcase new works from the artist’s ongoing series of sculptures and bas-relief paintings. Following his recent solo exhibition at the gallery, the presentation features new additions to three key series of works: 5G, CriSpr, and E.E.O (Explore, Expanse, Organise). 

Massoulier’s practice is centred on hybrid structures, all with multiple material, conceptual and semiotic layers. The artist acts like a meticulous bricoleur who synthesizes minerals and plants with artefacts or scraps of human technē – what he calls “entropic elements”, in a nod to a key concept in his work: entropy. Despite their diverse materiality, his sharp assemblages appear organized by some idiosyncratic logic and resemble jewel-coloured micro-landscapes (the 5G series) or sci-fi zoomorphic creatures (the CriSpr series). The works boast a rigorous conceptual construction, as they examine the merging between biology and technology, questions of mutation, metamorphosis and predation, the behaviour of entities within networks, and the increasingly hazy taxonomic distinctions between natural and synthetic.

Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XV, 2024
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XV, 2024, mixed media, 15 x 10 x 20 cm
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XVI, 2024
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XVI, 2024, mixed media, 15 x 10 x 20 cm
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XII, 2024
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XII, 2024, mixed media, 15 x 10 x 20 cm
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XI, 2024
Théo Massoulier, 5G.2024.XI, 2024, mixed media, 15 x 10 x 20 cm

Over the last year, Massoulier has channelled his sculptural vocabulary into the creation of a different type of hybrid object: bas-relief paintings (the E.E.O (Explore, Expanse, Organise) series). He stratifies these works such that one layer – the painted surface with inlaid plexiglass marquetry – echoes a microscopic image of cells or viruses (i.e., basic units of life or biological entities), while the other layer – a sculptural piece on a rail – recalls robots or computer hardware (i.e., advanced technological devices).

Théo Massoulier, CriSpr.2024.II, 2024
Théo Massoulier, CriSpr.2024.II, 2024, mixed media, 33 x 25 x 45 cm

“Several overarching dialectics shape my thinking and my work. These include order and chaos, biology and geology, microscopic and macroscopic scale, as I seek to understand the world at its grandest and smallest levels. Overall, I am particularly interested in questions related to Evolution – everything that has to do with the development of the world around us.” — Théo Massoulier 

Art fair details

miart 2024

Gaep, Booth C50

With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute

Address

Allianz MiCo, hall 3, gate 5, Viale Scarampo, Milan

Public Opening Hours

12–13 April: 11:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

14 April: 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.