PARIS + par Art Basel 2023

Anne-Lise Coste’s (1973, Marignane, FR) works possess a strong sense of immediacy that comes from her approach to painting: she usually paints in one shot, unleashing all her energy, ideas, and intuition onto the canvas. The vibrance of airbrushing resonates with the vitality of her work, as well as adding a graffiti-like aesthetic that instantly invigorates the political aspect. On the other hand, Coste is not scared of accident or imperfection; polishing is an act of masquerading the nature of things.

The use of words in her work is sharp, to the point; no metaphor needed. Just like signs in demonstrations, her written works channel rebellion and discomfort, yet the messages are provocative. Coste takes ownership of slurs and curse words and, by hanging them on the wall, does not allow a way-out: we are confronted by their crudeness. On the other hand, angst within her work is often conveyed in a lyrical manner and frequently bathed in a bright palette that reveals a tense synergy between violence and beauty. It is precisely in dualities that Coste’s art finds its power: between gravity and lightness, between impulsiveness and abidance.

Anne-Lise Coste studied in Marseille and in Zurich, after which she was based in New York, and now lives in Sète (South of France). Her drawings and texts have the immediacy of graffiti, and allow her to express subjective moods mixed with political criticism and literary sentences. With a dada-influenced language and intensely lyrical images, her work exudes irony, rebellion and emotion. She creates seemingly decorative compositions that actually offer us a catalogue of contemporary anxieties, where the immediacy of the gesture of drawing combines a strong poetic sense with an element of social critique. 

Recent solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (CH); URDLA,Villeurbanne (FR); InstitutFrançais, Berlin (DE); Dortmunder Kunstverein, (DE); Château d’Assas du Vignan (FR); La Fabrique, Foundation Salomon, Annecy (FR); CRAC OCCITANIE, Sète (FR). 

Anne-Lise Coste’s work is in the collection of Stedelijk Museum (NL); Centre National des Arts Plastiques (FR); FRAC Corsica (FR); Migros Museum (CH); Fries Museum (NL); Museum Arnhem (NL); LAM (NL). 

Simnikiwe Buhlungu (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1995) has an interest in navigating personal and socio-historical narratives presents itself as a complex web of [re] imagined engagements which are surrounding, but not exclusive to, experiences embedded within the complexity of knowledge production(s) - which are (un)written, (un)spoken, (un)heard and made (in)visible. Through this, her practice begins to develop into moments that pose questions and attempt to provide answers to these ideas. The work has existed in a variety of forms — text, print, video, sonic negotiations and installation in a number of exhibitions, happenings and spaces. She also engages with printed material and publications, their production and dissemination — in conversation with her practice. 

Departing from knowledge production as a site of incongruencies, she is interested in how these moments call for the urgency to self-historicise and ultimately, self-determine. This is further manifested in the use of visual materials and language to activate research as a creative practice and complicates the way in which these methodologies can be used to initiate a visual discourse of noting to self. 

Recent presentations of her work include Unraveling The (Under-) Development Complex, Savvy Contemporary, London; *dissonated underings [hic!], after-happenings and khuayarings (sithi “ahhhh!”), Kunsthalle Bern; The Milk of Dreams, La Biennale de Venezia 2022; Small World, Real World, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2021; Triennale Tres Pesos , El Colegio de la Desextinción (Mexico and Online), 2020; Bergen Kunsthall and KODE 1 (Bergen, Norway), 2020; Collective Intimacies - Notes to Self: Intimate 1, The Showroom (London, UK), 2019. 

The works that Lara Almarcegui (1972, Zaragoza) has been developing over the course of nearly twenty years are situated at the border between urban renewal and urban decay, and make visible what tends to escape general notice. On the one hand, Almarcegui focuses her attention on abandoned spaces and structures in the process of transformation; on the other, she investigates the different connections that can be established between architecture and the urban order. The work of Lara Almarcegui poses questions about the current state of the construction, development, use, and decay of spaces that are apparently peripheral to the city. In her large- scale projects she provokes a dialogue between the different elements that make up the physical reality of the urban landscape, in its constant transformation through demolitions, excavations, construction materials, and contemporary ruins.

Lara Almarcegui lives and works in Rotterdam. Her work has been the object of numerous solo exhibitions in institutions such as Graphische Sammlung, Zurich (2019); IVAM, Valencia, Spain (2019); Art Basel (2018); Casino Luxembourg (2016); Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland (2015); Gemmeente Museum Den Haag, the Netherlands (2015); the Stedelijk Museum, Den Bosch (2012). Almarcegui has also participated in many collective exhibitions in institutions such as Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (2020), Centro Botín, Santander (2020), Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2020), Museum M+, Hong Kong (2019), MACBA, Barcelona (2015), and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2015), among others. Almarcegui has also participated in the 14th Biennale de Lyon, France (2017); the 1st Triennale of Aichi, Nagoya, Japan (2013); Manifesta 9 (2012); the Taipei Biennial (2010); the 2nd Athens Biennial (2011). In 2013 she represented Spain at the 55th Venice Biennale.

Lara Almarcegui’s works are in important public and private collections, most notably in those of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; MACBA, Barcelona; Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; MUSAC, Leon; CAAC, Sevilla; FRAC Pays de la Loire; FRAC Normandie Rouen; Rabo Bank Collection, Utrecht; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; FRAC Alsace, Sélestat; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon; and the PhotoMuseum, Winterthur.

Tyna Adebowale (1982, Nigeria) lives and works in Amsterdam. When we contemplate Tyna Adebowale’s work, we become aware of the unrelenting negotiation of relationships, sexualities, and freedom of people identifying in the queer spectrum. The difficulties of being and striving under the restrains of heteronormative biopolitics and the pervasive religious substrate of colonialism are fought with an artistic practice that centres dissidence in beautiful and powerful depictions of empowered resistance. 

Intrinsic in Adebowale’s work are ongoing processes of questioning and representation of queer bodies, stories, and histories. The models in her paintings are infused with raw emotion and defiance while exuding an unapologetic power in reclaimed intimacies and visibilities. Just like the vividness through which they are painted, they are testimonies of the dualities of joy and agony, of belonging and displacement, of tenderness and harshness. There is no other position but to see them and be, even for a moment, unavoidably faced with their striking presence. Their monumentality is of a rebelling new-found comfort in their bodies, despite being constantly othered.

Recent exhibitions include Africa Supernova (Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort, NL, 2023), Refresh Amsterdam 2020-2021,(Amsterdam Museum), The Future is Female (CODA Museum, Appeldorn, NL, 2020), and What if Women Ruled The World? (Garage, Rotterdam, 2019). She is the second recipient of the Jacqueline Van Tongeren Fellowship For African Artists (2017-2018), 3Package Deal Award (2019-2020) Recipient from the AFK grant, Amsterdam. She was resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam between 2017 and 2019, and at BlackRock Senegal, run by Kehinde Wiley, between 2021 and 2022.