Cyprien Gaillard solo for MCA at St James

Born in 1980, Paris, Cyprien Gaillard is a true embodiment of the word ‘artist’ – using a variety of different forms of mediums to display his inspirations. Through sculpture, paint, photography, film, architecture and large gallery installations - this major emerging international artist continually succeeds in portraying his vision.

It is a unique and varied palette with which Gaillard works with – a ranging spectrum from vandalism and minimal aesthetics to romanticism and Earth Art – in which the artist questions man’s traces in nature in an iconoclastic means. For example the landscape etching ‘Belief in the Age of Disbelief’, where Gaillard introduced a view of a tower-block mixed with a 17th Century Dutch landscape.

This piece showed contemporary architecture as a modern ruin on the verge of being taken over by nature. Similar to Hubert Robert, who painted the Louvre as a ruin, Gaillard follows French philosopher Denis Diderot's advice according to which “One must ruin a palace to make it an object of interest.” Gaillard's ruined architectures and disappearing landscapes romantically embody man's inevitable fate through the passing of time.

With stunning works, enthusiasts can admire an assortment of Gaillard’s art all around the word - from scattered monuments in Paris, Glasgow, Serbia and London to film, etchings, paintings and photography exhibitions. For example Gaillard’s ‘Desniansky Raion’, exhibited in Cosmic Gallery in Paris 2007. This is a thirty-minute video where there exists remnants, within the of one idea of ‘Utopia’, in a modern world – accompanied by a series of engravings and photography in the adjoining rooms.

The event is sponsored by EC English Language Centres. Do not miss this opportunity to view this exhibition of this incredible innovative modern artist.