NOIRE

We are delighted to present “OCULUS” by John Armleder, a distinctive project for Noire Gallery that stems from a longstanding friendship with an extraordinary and visionary artist. Comprised of fifteen meticulously crafted mirrored mosaics in gold and silver, this artwork reflects fragments of a distorted and indistinct reality, assuming a multitude of shapes that continually repeat and undergo metamorphosis, continuously evolving and adapting in response to the prevailing circumstances.

John Armleder’s artistic oeuvre is characterized by its polymorphic nature, eluding identification with any specific medium, process, formal style, or visual aesthetic. Having been associated with the alternative Fluxus movement in the 1960s, he later founded the Ecart group and, in the 1980s, aligned with Neo-Geometric Conceptualism. Since the early 1980s, Armleder has persistently questioned abstraction and the concept of modernity through the methods of appropriation and quotation. In addition to drawing, performance, and painting, the artist has expanded his practice to encompass installations where found objects are juxtaposed with geometric or monochrome abstract paintings.

John Armleder’s remarkable body of work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at esteemed institutions, including the MRAC – Musée régional d’art contemporain Occitanie in Sérignan, France (2023); the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, China (2021); the Kanal Centre Pompidou in Brussels, Belgium (2021); MAXXI in Rome, Italy (2020); the Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany (2019); the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, USA (2019); the Museion in Bolzano, Italy (2018); MADRE – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina in Naples, Italy (2018); the Istituto Svizzero di Roma in Rome, Italy (2017); the Consortium of Dijon in France (2014); the Dairy Art Centre in London (2013); the Swiss Institute in New York, USA (2012); the Kunstmuseum in Sankt-Gallen, Switzerland (2010); the MAMCO-Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva, Switzerland (2006); the Musée Rath in Geneva, Switzerland (1990); the Nationalgalerie Berlin in Berlin, Germany (1987); the Kunstverein in Düsseldorf, Germany (1987); the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in Paris, France (1987); and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Winterthur, Switzerland (1987). His work has also found a place in the permanent collections of numerous museums. Armleder currently resides and works in Geneva.