We are happy to be presenting Brian Belott’s first solo exhibition in France. One of Belott’s predilections is for producing original books(1) of which Donald Baechler has remarked that "they work particularly well in groups"(2). He combines painting on all sorts of surfaces with techniques as diverse as drawing, photography and using collections of found images. Starting with documents drawn from a wide variety of sources, he creates disparate elements which may admittedly be of little interest as such, but which, once brought together through collage techniques, take on a new character. The resulting effects are surprisingly poetic, and not lacking in a brand of humour that sometimes has its dark side. As "special" effects, they conform to an underlying principle that gives the fantastical a strange cast. Belott is a "radiant boy" of stunning imagination. But his world is innocent in appearance only. He has nothing in common with childhood other than a certain cruelty: robots in free fall, birds in a nose dive, rockets out of kilter. In Belott’s work, the real point is elsewhere – it is that of sonorities and flashes of colour. Reds, oranges, yellows and blues blend into compositions whose musical dimension is heightened by the allusive presence, here and there, of instruments: a violin, organ pipes, a drum or a trumpet. But his painting hides another kind of score. You enter Belott’s universe at your own risk – sometimes accompanied by angels, sometimes the enigmatic eye of a cat – the way you might enter a labyrinth, not really knowing what you’re going to find there, or indeed how you’re going to get back out. Bernard Zürcher
1- Books, books, books, books, books, books and books, 2005-07, a set of volumes, was recently exhibited and acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
2- "Brian Belott’s Books", in Donald Baechler, Wipe that Clock off your Face, New York, Picturebox, New York, 2007
Solo exhibitions:
2008
“Brian Belott”, Leyendecker Gallery, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
2007
“Swirly Music”, Canada gallery, New York, NY
“Brian Belott Lost and Found Slide Show”, Community Outreach Gallery, Ontario, Canada
2005
“Books, books, books, books, books, books and books”, Canada gallery, New York, NY
“Adult Soda”, Stefan Stux, New York, NY
2004
“What’s Going On”, Kenny Schacter, New York, NY
Group shows:
2008
“Book / Shelf” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“I Won’t Grow Up”, Cheim & Read, New York, NY
Show #16: Ed Blackburn + Brian Belott, and/or gallery, Dallas, TX
“Sunshine” Ritter/Zamet at Rental Gallery, New York, NY
“The Ice Cream Show”, Loyal & Galleri Loyal, Stockholm, Suède
2007
“Bits and Pieces: The Collage Impulse”, Lehman College Gallery, Bronx, NY
“Cabinet of Curiosities”, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
“What Glue Do You Use?”, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris, France
Group show at Ritter/Zamet, London, Angleterre
Publications
Wipe That Clock Off Your Face, Picturebox and Canada gallery, New York, NY, 2007
Loyal and His Band, Loyal & Galleri Loyal, Stockholm, Suède, 2005
