Alexandra Noel and Naoki Sutter Shudo were born respectively in 1989 and 1990. They live in Los Angeles.
Alexandra Noel’s work is distinctive for its oil-painted panels, immediately recognizable by their dimensions — usually that of a postcard or paperback book — but even more so by the fascinating universe they unfold. The format immediately draws us in. It forces us to come closer, to give ourselves wholly to the contemplation of its cosmic landscapes, phantasmatic architectures or intimate scenes. Although our mind can sometimes wander to possible references to Surrealist painting or Hollywood cinema, we are captivated by the internal coherence of each work, which always seems to harbor a secret, unresolved tension beneath its delicately mastered surface.
But what makes Alexandra Noel's pictorial work essential is the wit with which her medium unfolds and complexifies this visual repertoire. Whether through her illusionist representations, her humorous use of impasto and other textural effects, her various experiments with support and materials, or her typical enameled edges, she demonstrates, far from any virtuosity or preciosity, an empirical, incisive and joyful intelligence. Her incursions into the field of sculpture, as well as her practice of fictional writing, contribute to the constitution of an extremely personal body of work.
Taking the form of sculptures or installations, photographs or paintings, Naoki Sutter-Shudo’s works combine materials and techniques with caustic sophistication. By their eccentric refinement, display of artifice, and incisive erudition, these pieces exude a form of decadent seduction reminiscent of J.-K. Huysmans and Georges Bataille in the literary sphere. They also reflect a certain fascination with the notion of the microcosm, the reduction of a universe to the dimensions of human hands, whereby technical mastery and rationality are pushed to the point of manifesting their inverse.
Born in France, educated in Japan, and now based in Los Angeles, the artist’s work reveals both the multiplicity of his cultural influences and a singular conception of language. The artist often revels in the very process of translation, the paradoxical materialization of signs, and a sense of the absurd inherent in the everyday experience of slippage of meaning.
Alexandra Noel is represented by Crèvecoeur (Paris), Derosia (New York) and Antenna Space (Shanghai). Naoki Sutter Shudo is represented by Crèvecoeur (Paris), Derosia (New York) and XYZ Collective (Tokyo).
