Embodiment

EVENT DESCRIPTION

LGDR & Wei is pleased to present Embodiment, a selection of works from leading contemporary artists. On view at the gallery’s space in Hong Kong, the works featured will rotate over the course of the exhibition. Embodiment explores identity politics, desire, and reflection in the contemporary world through portraits and figurative works across media, genres, and cultures.

Marilyn Minter’s large scale works on view at the second chapter of Embodiment explore the ‘pathology of glamour.’ Through painting, photography, and video, Minter’s work focuses on the female body and its portrayal in art history and popular media. Pink Eye (2005), rendered with her trademark technique of layering and modelling enamel on metal, depicts a hyperrealist close-up of a woman’s eye, simultaneously seductive and irritating. The work exposes the confrontation between beauty and desire, as well as the cultural inhibitions in dealing with sexuality. Drawing inspiration from the classical representation of the ‘bather,’ Minter’s photographs, Last Sleepy Angel (2017) and Double Halo (2019), depict female forms behind steamed panes of glass, allowing the viewer to consume their images. In her works, the clichés of fashion photography and soft pornography collide, provocatively subverting the male gaze and redefining the nature of feminist art.

Also on view are four recent paintings by Afro-French artist Alexis Ralaivao. Born to a Madagascan father and a French mother, Ralaivao’s paintings primarily explore ethnicity, beauty, and intimacy. The self-taught artist documents details from his immediate surroundings and infuses them with delicate sensuality, capturing fragments of romantic memories. His unique painterly technique adds a velvety veneer to these candid images. Subtle, elegant, and refined, Ralaivao’s canvases immerse viewers in a sophisticated, distinctly French ambience.