Nicolas Lefebvre | Objets Montés

About

Inspired by the Arte Povera movement, Lefebvre uses materials beyond traditional oil paint on canvas, bronze or carved marble. His 'ready- mades’ are heavily inspired by the Surrealists and Dadaists such as Marcel Duchamp.

The exhibition’s title draws on the Middle Age phenomenon of ‘mounted objects,’ whereby antique and precious items were assembled together to enhance them, protect them or give them a new function. In the Renaissance, natural products such as ostrich eggs, shells, coconuts and horns were decorated with precious mounts in order to adorn cabinets of curiosities. In the 19th century, mounted objects began to comprise of Chinese or Japanese porcelains decorated with masterfully gilded bronze. In the same spirit of combining different materials and objects to create new pieces, Lefebvre creates new contemporary artworks.

A compulsive bargain hunter, Lefebvre collects relics produced by different cultures and eras from across the globe and repurposes them. An antique Egyptian eye and pre-Columbian pliers, an Amazonian headdress and Nigerian coins, a Khmer mirror and a Berber tent peg: these are just some of the unexpected associations created by Lefebvre. Relishing in the beauty of aged objects, in his creative process the artist attempts to unite Nature to Man (a tree trunk and a whale rib with an African coin from the 18th century), as well as Man to Man (a dome of a church model from the 19th century with an Ethiopian Koran table from the 18th century). A recurring motif in Lefebvre’s work is the mother goddess, a protective and kindly deity symbolised by two recurrent symbols: the circle (infinity) and the cross (intersection).

The exhibition presents Lefebvre’s works in a mixed context of both a conventional gallery presentation, where objects are placed on plinths and hang individually on walls, as well as in a loose set-up of an artist's home, littered with found objects such as a whalebone, a boar’s hair necklace, a loom topped with a Chilean stone figure, and a mix of furniture from the 1950s to the 18th century.

Lefebvre studied Art History at the École du Louvre and has exhibited extensively in France. This will be his first solo show in London.