Gautier Deblonde - Atelier

THURSDAY 13 JAN 6pm

Book signing and photography exhibition

The artist's studio is not just any space, not just any room. lt's a place held in high esteem where the artist can truly be an artist; a creative space with an intangible aura that feels almost sacred. While some studios are raw and intimate, others are meticulously ordered; there are pristinely designed spaces and some that are more improvised.

Regardless, each studio is expressive in a way that is both distinctive and revealing. 

Gautier Deblonde has photographed artists' studios in America, Europe and Asia for the past years. He is particularly drawn to the studio as a subject, capturing the work in progress with ail the traces of creation, but without the artists themselves. As documentary photographs the images are rich in detail - full of sculptures half finished, brushes scattered on the floor, and shelves of inspirational material. Though the artists are conspicuously absent there's a lingering sense of their presence as if magic lies in every tool waiting to be brought to life. Left alone in the space it feels as if time stops.

Les Photographies de Gautier Deblonde, from Steidl Dangin provides a privileged glimpse behind the scenes to the source of artistic creation. Sixty studios have been captured in panorama, including the private spaces of Chuck Close, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Gerhard Richter and Kiki Smith among others. Photographed methodically, the compositions appear together as a meditative study on the studio leaving the viewer to interpret the artist's intention and imagine the space corne to life.