Exhibition Information

Untitled
2020 (출처= VSF) Oil stick on concrete 25 x 31 1/4 x 2 in 63.5 x 79.4 x 5.1 cm

My second selfie
2021 (출처= VSF) Oil on canvas

Yellow gesture
2021 (출처= VSF) Oil on linen

(출처= VSF)

			Various Small Fires is pleased to present Arms Of The Sea in collaboration with CLEARING New York / Brussels / Beverly Hills in its Seoul location. The exhibition by Harold Ancart, Sebastian Black and Loïc Raguénès, is proposed through three axes of work that explore liquidity, rhythm, and magnitude.

Abstraction is central to the exhibition, which works in a similar course as water. As transparent as it is, when accumulated in large quantities, it acquires a mysterious – tenebrous at times – darkness, that doesn’t allow one to see through it all. At first glance, an answer is given to us, but the deeper we dive into the works, the less we know and we open ourselves to interpretation through sensation over rationality.

The same unease awakens due to the lack of information presented on Sebastian Black’s thermal-camera paintings, where the works points at itself as the topic, but the titles give away clues proposed by the artist. Yellow gesture and My Second Selfie were created by using a thermal recognition gadget for iPhone, allowing a digital being to take aesthetic decisions over the artist’s desires. Devoid bodies of water with a loose application of color blocks are presented on Harold Ancart’s sculptures. By removing the liquid, the artwork becomes a pure study of shape and color: a speculative examination of pools, their use and architecture. In the end, once seen up close, any painting becomes just that, a material on a canvas, texture and shade.

In Loïc Raguénès landscapes, the melodic current is interrupted by the emergence of the Sun, in what appears to be a game between background and foreground. Through Raguénès delicate brush strokes, Très Lent [Very Slow] sets a tempo that can also be read as something that is opposite to its title – it actually feels like it is running at a high speed. Not unlike Han River, where quietness is only apparent.

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Harold Ancart (b. 1980 in Brussels, Belgium) lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited at the Menil Collection, Houston; Centre Pompidou-Metz; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; WIELS, Brussels; FKA Witte de With, Rotterdam; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Rubell Museum, Miami; the Sculpture Park, Madhavendra Palace, Jaipur; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; and the Taipei Biennial. His solo exhibition, “A Strange Encounter”, is currently on view at C L E A R I N G Beverly Hills. Harold Ancart’s work is part of the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; The Menil Collection, Houston; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Florida; Rubell Museum, Miami; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; YUZ Museum, Shanghai; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Long Museum, Shanghai; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Kadist Foundation, Paris; S.M.A.K., Ghent; Lenbachhaus, Munich; Beyeler Foundation, Basel; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker; Rachofsky Collection, Dallas; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Collezione Olgiati, Lugano; David Roberts Foundation, London.

Sebastian Black (b. 1985 in New York, USA) lives and works in New York. He received his MFA from Columbia University in 2012. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at C L E A R I N G New York and Brussels; Ribordy Thetaz, Geneva; Balice Hertling, Paris; Croy Nielsen, Berlin and Vienna; and Karma, New York. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at CCA Andratx, Mallorca; Hauser & Wirth, New York; Marlborough Gallery, New York; Broadway Gallery, New York; and Rachel Uffner, New York; and Proyectomonclova, Mexico City. Next month he will be included in a group exhibitions at Various Small Fires, Seoul; and Gana Art, Seoul. Sebastian Black’s work is part of the collections of Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; MAMCO, Geneva; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Modern Forms, London.

Loïc Raguénès (b. 1968 in Besançon, France) lives and works in Douarnenez, France. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Musée des Beaux Arts, Dole; Musée François Pompon, Saulieu; Circuit, Lausanne; Galeria Zero, Milan; and C L E A R I N G New York / Brussels. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Le Consortium, Dijon; de Appel, Amsterdam; Musée des Beaux Arts de Rennes; Villa Arson, Nice; CAN, Neuchâtel; Casino Luxembourg; FRAC Ile de France, Paris and FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux; and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg. Currently, Raguénès is included in the group exhibition ‘After De Keyser: New Visions’ at David Zwirner Gallery. Later this year he will have a solo exhibition at C L E A R I N G Brussels. Loïc Raguénès’s work is part of the collections of Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris; FRAC Ile de France; FRAC Champagne-Ardenne; and FRAC Bourgogne.