Gallery Elsa Meunier and gallery Mathilde Le Coz are pleased to unveil “Getting Closer”, a duo exhibition which brings together the works of Zhi Ding, a Chinese painter based in New York, and Bartosz Kowal, a Polish artist. Both pay particular attention to close-up framing. In Zhi Ding’s works, this often tight framing immerses the viewer in the intimacy of a character that we find from painting to painting. For his part, Bartosz Kowal invites us to scrutinize the smallest details of a face, a close-up that pushes us to observe beyond appearances, to decipher subtle expressions. Like cinematographic techniques, the short distance which separates the spectators from the subjects allows the painters to accentuate the emotional intensity and transport us to the very heart of their works.

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It is through an enigmatic and solitary character that the artist Zhi Ding opens the way to us in her work. Devoid of expression, thus creating a certain distance with the viewer, we like to follow him and sometimes even in a sequenced manner, as through the two paintings in the “Secret Manual” series where the framing between the character and the book evolves from canvas to canvas.

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Although the paintings entitled “Hide & Seek VIII” and “XiaoMing III” are presented in isolation, they are also integrated into groups. They constitute a new sequence to larger narratives. It is through the purification of the decor represented, the change of framing and the attitude of the character that the artist manages to give a certain idea of movement and to make us follow a story which unfolds from painting to painting before our eyes, like in a film.

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In his paintings, Bartosz Kowal concentrates particularly on depicting faces and, more precisely, fragments of faces. Every detail, be it a look, a mouth or a profile, seems imbued with subtle emotions. And these faces, carefully framed or cropped, whisper equally partial stories. Using archive images as a starting point, the narrative is interrupted under the painter's brush. The artist stops us, adjusts the focus of our eye and brings us as close as possible to his subjects.

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Bartosz Kowal's painting technique, with its brushwork on the surface of the canvas and its restricted palette of muted tones, evokes the aesthetics of an old film, like a filter, reinforcing the intimate, enigmatic atmosphere of his works. His approach to close-ups and image cropping, also close to the language of film, invites us to explore these suspended moments and contemplate these unknown faces.

Galerie Elsa Meunier

15 rue Guénégaud, 75006 Paris

Contact | mathilde.m.lecoz@gmail.com

+33 (0)6 35 60 11 07 - @mathildemlecoz