Nendo Galerie is pleased to announce the second installment of its NendoMarket exhibition.

Continuing to question – and even shake up – the ways in which contemporary ceramics are exhibited, NendoMarket 02 presents a selection of mostly domestic forms by eight ceramic artists.

As the title suggests, it is indeed an allusion to the universe, aesthetics and the organization of supermarkets that is highlighted here.

Lined up on metal tables and shelves, with the aim of considering them without hierarchy and in the most neutral possible perspective which attempts to thwart certain curatorial gestures, the works stand out through their quality and diversity more than through artifices of staging – even if it must be recognized that this postulate, unusual in a gallery, can itself be perceived as a form of staging!

Invited artists were chosen for the relevance of their vocabulary, the quality of their research, and the heterogeneity and contrast of their practices.

If Thomas Cadith and Lukas Richarz both work with the ancestral form of the bowl, they free it from a purely utilitarian aspect, the first by making sculptures inspired by geological movements while the second’s research into black(s) and the treatment of surfaces have a painterly quality.

In Martin Schlotz’s work, it’s the subtle variations in texture and the restraint of chromatic ranges that are particularly appealing, in a formal vocabulary that is deceptively geometric but reduced to a certain essence. This is the opposite of Andrea Moreno’s work, which asserts a “DIY glamour” made up of picturesque assemblages that appear cobbled-together and enhanced by frank, bold colors, or Hélène Segura’s undulating, almost hypnotic work, with its fine, sinuous lines in constant motion.

Trained as a designer, Jean-Baptiste Durand excels in combining clay with materials traditionally foreign to the world of ceramics, to create objects that energetically challenge shapes and their perception of use. He is joined in a certain idea of transgression by Pauline Bonnet, whose work imposes a liveliness derived from surfaces with plaster effects, matte colors, changing hues… turning traditional glazes in reverse, and by Quentin Marais, who plays with the purpose of objects to impose a vocabulary of hybrid, playful and mischievous forms.

All in all, NendoMarket offers itself as a place for a wide variety of products… like in the supermarket!

©jcLett