Press release patrick singh black lights

Press release October 23, 2013

Black lights Patrick Singh (France - painting) 7 December 2013 – 16 February 2014 Sitges (Barcelona)

Galería Out of Africa - www.galeria-out-of-africa.com Carrer Major, 7 - Carrer Nou - 08870 Sitges (Barcelona) - España sorella@galeria-out-of-africa.com - Tel: +34 618 356 351

BLACK LIGHTS

Patrick Singh uses a wide range of painting surfaces such as awning, canvas, Vietnamese cloth and paper to reflect the faces of the countries through which he travels, among them Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Columbia, Peru and Mexico.

Having been frequently asked to participate in artist-in-residence projects, this has led Singh to exhibit and edit his art in many countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia or the United States.

From the 7th December 2013 to the 16th February 2014, the Out of Africa gallery presents canvases painted by the artist in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal. This exhibition also provides an opportunity to discover Singh's travel journals and artists' books, which illustrate another facet of his work as a painter.

To complement the exhibition, the gallery will also display various books on Patrick Singh, the latest having been published by the French Institute of Burkina Faso with the title "Corps et âme" (Body and Soul), a sumptuous book object containing over 500 paintings carried out in Africa and original silk screen prints.

Patrick Singh (France) – Territoire – 223cm H x 83cm W – 2012 – Mixed media on canvas.

2

Black lights "Those familiar with Patrick Singh's work know that his travel journals, artists' books and canvases immerse the viewer in an unique universe steeped in humanity and compassion.

Painter, drawer and artist, Patrick Singh touches his public deeply. We are overcome by the force of his African, mixed-race or Indian faces, profound and dignified, by his fragments of daily goings-on, by his texts written about the masses, by aspiring to what is universal and timeless.

For Singh, each destination around the world is a journey of initiation which is reflected by striking frescoes rendered on a variety of supports. Both his paintings and the books he has published are fed by social and cultural influences and experiences, rich and diverse. He draws attention to the crossroads of human destinies and questions the memory of human beings as well as their future. Patrick Singh has dedicated more than 20 years to creating exhibitions, working on artist residency programmes and producing graphic editions on an international level. He has worked on a number of projects in many African countries, Central and South America, Asia, Europe as well as the USA." Thibault Flichy

Patrick Singh (France) - Shrine - 210cm H x 74cm W – 2012 Mixed media on canvas

"Patrick Singh, whose extensive travels have been punctuated with artistic projects in the four corners of the earth, was invited to Africa for the first time courtesy of the French Cultural Centre of Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso.

The artist who has captured traces of the African diaspora for over fifteen years, found here an ideal land for his ceaseless search for compassion. Patrick Singh transmits a rare intensity in his work, whether found in his paintings, drawings, book-objects, collages, or photographic interventions...

3

A selection of work produced during Singh's residency programme in Burkina Faso has been published in an extremely original edition, both in form and content. The publication "Corps et âme" (Body and Soul) constitutes a book-object that is truly representative of this artist's universe. A universe peopled with faces and figures that burst forth in a calculated blaze, a universe inhabited by a thousand and one encounters, all woven in Burkina Faso, the country of honest men."

Alain Millot.

"Patrick Singh inevitably captures the overwhelming force and magnetism of those he paints. The portrait, a means of identification, departs from this sole function to become an initiatory journey."

Galerie Anne Cros

Patrick Singh – Francia – Visa – 210cm Alt x 75cm A – 2012 Técnica mixta sobre tela.

"Patrick Singh likes otherness, disparity, stigmas, charcoal blacks and traces. He sweeps us up in an African and Indian cross-cultural journey. An inner journey where it is bewildering to discover ones own face within the traits of another. The economy of tones on the canvases, hues of browns, monotone greys and an arpeggio of blacks reveal thousands of nuances surrounding what he calls the human figure. Paintings where the matter, thick, present and penetrating, emphasizes the intensity of the stare and the hardened rictus. These are not portraits, they are not studies of the human body, they speak of the true being, solemnly confronting the world, questioning death with black throbs of the soul. We are never left unmoved by the plastic approach of this French artist."

ML Culture.

4

Artists' books by Patrick Singh Volumes bursting with drawings, featuring a variety of materials, paintings, collages, texts, skilful foldouts and pop-ups, speak of the artist's pilgrimages and encounters in the world, not only in many parts of the globe where his exhibitions have led him, but also further afield.

Singh records traces of insignificant details that are the markings of a social and cultural reality that are complex by nature.

In happily ignoring the frontier between travel journals, book objects and artists' books along with the diversity of approach and the element of discovery, said library is a true cabinet of curiosities.

Indeed, Patrick Singh infers more than what he actually says, he evokes rather than narrates, leaving our imagination to complete the rest of the journey. At the heart of each project (his paintings are no exception), human beings of course, peoples, mixed-races and crowds, that are a channel for his never ceasing quest for humanity.

Patrick Singh – Travel journals and artists’ books

For more information, contact: Sorella Acosta sorella@galeria-out-of-africa.com +34 618 356 351 www.galeria-out-of-africa.com facebook : Galeria Out of Africa

5