Artist: Léo Luccioni
Exhibition title: Royal Gala
Venue: Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Date: March 25 – April 19, 2021
Photography: all images courtesy of the artist and Stems Gallery, Brussels
Stems Gallery is pleased to announce “Royal Gala”, the first solo exhibition of the French artist Léo Luccioni at the gallery. “Royal Gala” consists of a body of work that guides the viewer through a distorted Garden of Eden. Multiple commercial/trade symbols are stripped of their original contexts to form a series of images and reincarnated objects, floating between a day dream and spiritual materialism. The name of the exhibition refers to this iconic variety of apple, the “Royal Gala”, a forbidden fruit with advertising slogans, which we are invited to bite into, in the space of an apple tree gallery. This allegory, linked to the capacity of capitalism, to digest and spit out any criticism to adapt to each mutation, transforms our faculties of judgment, making them blurry and diluted, divided between good and evil. The logic of integrating paradoxes creates the culminating point; gas cylinders recycled into meditation instruments, interchangeable commercial mantras functioning as labels, “Forever Faster” swings as heavy and dangerous as they’re light and innocent. In this gala of temptation, this re-updated fable, the symbols recycle each other like snakes biting their tails.
Leo Luccioni (b.1994, France) lives and works in Brussels. His multidisciplinary practise moves seamlessly between installation, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. Through a colourful, pop and flashy aesthetics, Luccioni highlights the ambiguity of our relationship with consumerism in a neoliberalism era. Between seduction and abhorrence, ephemeral and sacred, his work involves daily-life standardised products to which are given precious and fictional forms. His pieces become characters of fictional narration, comically similar to entrepreneurial storytelling. Under the disguise of humour and deliberate anti-poetry, Leo Luccioni’s work is deeply conceptual. His subtly provocative practice constantly applies capitalistic phenomenons – such as counterfeit, delocalised production of his pieces, and advertising to the artistic field, questioning the the absurdity of mass production and the illusion of material happiness of our time.
Royal Gala.
Le jardin d’Eden des artifices,
L’île de la tentation des appétits insatiables,
Un pommier qui voit ses fruits mûrirent sur ses murs.
Goûter au fruit défendu.
Croquer les pommes gravées en leur chaire,
Digérer les évangiles commerciaux :
« New is old » de Back-Market fait concurrence au « Think Different » d’Apple.
Entre la tendance et l’obsolescence.
Jouer de la musique sur des bonbonnes de gaz.
Le jus acide des Gala qui coule sur mon visage.
S’irradier au plus proche d’un total atomique.
Entre pelures de pomme, atome chiffonné et logo défoncé aux vapeurs d’essence .
Faire de la balançoire sur des enclumes.
Au pied d’un pommier qui sourit.
« Forever Faster »
En équilibre entre l’ivresse et la chute.
« Yes Good »
Brûler les messages qui m’enflamment.
Des mots qui crament,
des mantras qui persistent.
Comme un serpent qui se mort la queue.
Enfermé dans un cycle où tout est possible.
Où l’excès et l’abondance côtoie le précieux et l’unique.
Où la vérité est si proche de l’illusion.
Où même les blâmes les plus virulents sont transformés en éloges.
« Make. Believe »
Traverser un conte de fée, une chanson auto-tunée.
Texte par Harold Lechien
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Léo Luccioni, Royal Gala, 2021, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
LÉO LUCCIONI, IT STARTS HERE – “TINDER”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 84.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 34 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, FOREVER FASTER – “PUMA”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 95.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 37 3/8 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, IT’S IN YOU – “YOP”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 72.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 28 3/8 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, YES GOOD – “AMAZON”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 60.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 23 5/8 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, MAKE.BELIEVE – “SONY”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 83.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 32 5/8 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, THINK.DIFFERENT- “APPLE”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 97.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 38 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, WANT IT MORE – “ASICS”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 82.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 32 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, NEW IS OLD – “BACKMARKET”, 2021, Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Clear mounted on aluminum panel, artist frame (burnt wood finish), 47.0 x 71.0 x 4.5 cm, 18 1/2 x 28 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, TOTAL PEEL, 2021, Neon, glass, electric transformer, silicone, cables, 110.0 x 95.0 x 3.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, AN APPLE TREE, 2021, Graphite and lead pencil on acid-free Canson paper, framed, 153.0 x 120.0 x 5.0 cm, 60 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 2 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, AN APPLE, 2021, Graphite and lead pencil on acid-free Canson paper, framed, 92.5 x 92.5 x 5.0 cm, 36 3/8 x 36 3/8 x 2 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, A SNAKE, 2021, Graphite and lead pencil on acid-free Canson paper, framed, 100.0 x 71.0 x 5.0 cm, 39 3/8 x 28 x 1 3/4 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, PRIMAGAZ-131 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, PRIMAGAZ-131 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, ANTARGAZ-05 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, TOTALGAZ-93 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, ELF ANTARGAZ-99 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, TOTALGAZ-95 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, 82-BUTAGAZ MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, PRIMAGAZ-115 MEDITATION DRUM, 2021, Steel gas cylinder, aluminum sticks and cotton, custom car body paint, 30.0 x 26.0 x 26.0 cm, 43 1/4 x 37 3/8 x 1 1/8 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, MORPHEUS KNIGHT TUNING, 2021, Burnt steel, leather, counterfeit Adidas training, Nike shoes, burnt apple, Dimensions variable
LÉO LUCCIONI, FOREVER FASTER, FOREVER YOUNG, 2021, Solid aluminium casted swing, steel chains, stainless steel screws, 41.0 x 16.0 x 5.0 cm, 16 1/8 x 6 1/4 x 2 inches
LÉO LUCCIONI, FOREVER FASTER, FOREVER YOUNG, 2021, Solid aluminium casted swing, steel chains, stainless steel screws, 41.0 x 16.0 x 5.0 cm, 16 1/8 x 6 1/4 x 2 inches
