Sean Townley at Antoine Levi

Artist: Sean Townley

Exhibition title: Opera in Restauro

Venue: Antoine Levi, Paris, France

Date: March 18 – May 6, 2017

Photography: Aurélien Mole, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Antoine Levi, Paris

Antoine Levi gallery is proud to present Los Angeles based artist Sean Townley’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.

For this exhibition Townley has created an installation centered around a photograph taken at the Vatican of Antonio Canova’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa, while under restoration. This photograph is shown as a direct inkjet transfer embedded in the gallery wall re-creates the instance of peering behind a veil to see the reworking of the marble sculpture.

In the work Pushing the Perimeter, Townley has retraced in 1:1 scale the gallery’s floor plan in hi studio, through which he pushes a marble block, rebuilding the space in its absence. The result is a 5.1 surround sound sculpture of a performance that sets a background to the exhibition, a deep grinding sound in which one can perceive the moments of pause and the stone’s changes of trajectory.

The stone continues its presence in the sculpture Opera (in black). Here in the entrance of the gallery this block of Negro Marquina is shown with a blackout curtain cut into the surface of the stone. Evoking a slow erosion the curtain’s natural drape becomes embedded in the relic of performance.

Behind the veil another installation is shown in the galleries central space. A rack of chains and measurements recreates an absent statue. Framing the photograph of Canova’s restoration the work Opera (in aluminum) completes the loop and apparatus of the exhibition.

Sean Townley (Boulder, 1983) lives and works in Los Angeles. He has exhibited widely in institutions and galleries in the USA and abroad. Notably, recent exhibitions include 7 Diadems/Red Ankhhafs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2016 (solo); The Third Measure, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, 2015 (solo); War Games, cur. by Benjamin Godsill, Moran Bondaroff, Detroit, 2016 (group); ESPERANTO, Group Exhibition cur. by Cura, Rowing Projects, London, 2016 (group).