Figuration Now! at Stems Gallery

Artists: Evgen Čopi Gorišek, Oli Epp, Bambou Gili, Karyn Lyons, Laure Mary-Couégnias, Alexis Ralaivao, Samantha Rosenwald, Koichi Sato, Marco Scarpi, Hiejin Yoo

Exhibition title: Figuration Now!

Venue: Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Date: April 27 – May 28, 2022

Photography: all images courtesy of the artists and Stems Gallery, Brussels

FIGURATION NOW! celebrates a new generation of artists expanding and propelling the ongoing revival of contemporary figurative painting. Across 15 works and a myriad of styles and methods, Evgen Copi Go-risek, Oli Epp, Bambou Gili, Karyn Lyons, Laure Mary-Couégnias, Alexis Ralaivao, Samantha Rosenwald, Koichi Sato, Marco Scarpi, and Hiejin Yoo generate a froth of reflections on identity and intimacy while probing into our relationship with the natural, the mystical, and the absurdity of being alive.

These artists ably and unabashedly execute art-historical techniques and tropes such as portraiture and still life while injecting them with inspiration from recent media like animation and graffiti using acrylics, oil paints, colored pencils, and even marble dust. These personal and identity-based works build an emotio-nally navigable bridge between the individual and the unintelligibly massive systems we collectively par-ticipate in: neotechnologism, climate change, racism, and patriarchism. Simultaneously critical, hopeful, melancholy, and extradimensional, the works of FIGURATION NOW! seek to explore our vulnerabilities and idiosyncrasies from an innovative pictorial vantagepoint, while serving as a reminder that far more connects us than drives us apart.

Figuration Now!, 2022, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels

Evgen Čopi Gorišek, Sometimes I Rather Be Alone, 2022 Acrylic and oil stick on linen, 727⁄8 x 61 in., 185 x 155 cm.

Alexis Ralaivao, La Nouvelle Bague, 2022 Oiloncanvas, 393⁄8 x 393⁄8 in., 100 x 100 cm.

Laure Mary-Couégnias, Framing Rules, 2022 Oil on Linen, 571⁄2 x 447⁄8 in., 146 x 114 cm.

Laure Mary-Couégnias, Feeling Rules, 2022 Oil on Linen, 571⁄2 x 447⁄8 in., 146 x 114 cm.

Bambou Gili, Study for Three Screaming Heads, 2021 Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in., 27.9 x 35.6 cm.

Oli Epp, Mondrian Coat, 2022 Oil and acrylic on canvas 311⁄2 x 271⁄2 in., 80 x 70 cm.

Hiejin Yoo, You Brought The Warmth In Here, 2022 Oil on linen, 36 x 34 in., 91.4 x 86.4 cm

Samantha Rosenwald, Semiprecious, 2022 Colored pencil on canvas 25 x 25 in., 63.5 x 63.5 cm

Samantha Rosenwald, Cash Cow, 2022 Colored pencil on canvas 28 x 28 in. 71.1 x 71.1 cm.

Karyn Lyons, French Fry Fever, 2022 Oil on linen, 19 x 151⁄2 in., 48.3 x 39.4 cm.

Karyn Lyons, The Red Couch, 2021 Oil on linen, 14 x 17 in., 35.6 x 43.2 cm.

Koichi Sato, Two Horses, 2021 Acrylic and oil on canvas 72 x 60 in., 182.9 x 152.4 cm.

Marco Scarpi, Suiseki, 2022, Acrylic and Marble Dust on Canvas 743⁄4 x 511⁄8 in., 190 x 130 cm

Marco Scarpi, Marmolada, 2022, Acrylic and Marble Dust on Canvas 743⁄4 x 511⁄8 in., 190 x 130 cm.

Marco Scarpi, Magatama, 2022, Acrylic and Marble Dust on Canvas 743⁄4 x 511⁄8 in., 190 x 130 cm.