BOLOGNA.- MAGMA Gallery will present the new collaboration with the French artist Jules Dedet Granel, alias L'Atlas, on the occasion of the solo exhibition "Dichotomy" at the gallery's headquarters in Bologna.
Born in Toulouse in 1978, L’Atlas lives and works in Paris and is considered one of the historic names of street art; his artistic career began by painting in the streets of Paris in the 90s. The techniques of graffiti, poster art, stencils and adhesive tape, combined with a strong interest in the techniques and history of calligraphy led him to study Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy in different countries of the world until he created his own language, made of letters and shapes, especially black and white, colors more inclined to create an optical vibration when observing the work.
The meeting with Agnès B., a well-known designer and collector, marked a first step forward in the artist's career. In 2001, he exhibited with 16 other artists, including Futura, Invader, Jon One, Zevs and Psyckoze, in a show that positioned street art as a major contemporary art movement.
Known internationally, along his career he boasts important exhibitions at the Fondation Cartier, the Grand Palais, the Palais de Tokyo and the Centre Pompidou but also in korea and Colombia. Also known for the large facades he painted and for his monumental performances realized in historical sites of the cities, such as the immense compass commissioned by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2008, or on the Place du Capitole in 2012 in Toulouse.
L'Atlas combines the ancient calligraphic aesthetic with the contemporary street aesthetic. The Artist therefore distances himself from conventional academic teachings to dedicate himself to Arabic calligraphy, with great Masters in Morocco and Egypt, and abandoning the courses of art history. He dedicates himself instead to that new expressive form that is at the origin of his original and iconic artistic style, where precise lines merge with minimal color schemes and philosophical nuances that reflect the Asian ideals of balance and complementarity. His research focuses on the idea of creating a universal pictorial language, a balance between form and letter, between act and intent; a game with infinite variations.
His interest in calligraphy is a consequence of his passion for graffiti, as L’Atlas is fascinated by the pure gesture, the one that cannot be retouched, a gesture that can be understood as the breath crystallized by ink. After a long path of study and research, the Artist has mixed this classical learning with Latin typography and more modern tools, using contemporary graphics. A pure writing made of labyrinths, regular lines, rhythmic scansions, with references to the sign systems of ancient oriental calligraphy, grafted onto a 90s background linked to writing and the metropolitan underground. Jules imagines that his art becomes an inseparable part of the city, while his language oscillates from flat surfaces to architecture, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, in a pictorial research that is universal. Jules remains obsessed with black and white, which symbolize purity, light and shadow, yin and yang and the calligrapher's stroke.
On the occasion of the exhibition at MAGMA Gallery, the most representative works of the artist's work in recent years are presented. In the most recent "Dawn and Bloom", "Pleasure and Euphoria" and "Coke and Ecstasy", spray paint brings out geometric and graphic labyrinths, primitive and contemporary at the same time. In the works of L'Atlas, signs, planes, diagonals, transversal lines and points of intersection give shape to a graphic representation of the universe; a universe that today reveals itself to be infinite and immeasurable. This abstract figuration, made of formulas and numbers, interprets the mathematical foundations in a visual key. Next to them are two hypnotic works on aluminum, “Silver Deflection” and “Black Deflection,” and in the main room of the gallery the majestic “Nocturnal Nebulae” welcomes the visitor, while in the works “Concrete jungle,” “In a Landscape,” and “Into the Body,” his distinctive geometric logo is superimposed on collages of recovered advertising posters, sometimes letting letters or entire words emerge, other times vibrant landscapes. The name L’Atlas appears, disappears, and reappears, interrupted and stripped of meaning, as he plays with different levels of readability, deconstructing the signs until they reach the state of abstract forms.
The artist has exhibited his works in prestigious institutions such as the Musée de la Poste, the Palais de Tokyo and the Centre Georges Pompidou. Among his most important exhibitions are Oxymores, Ministère de la culture et de communication (Paris, France, 2015), 50 ans d’art urbain à Paris, Galerie du Crédit Municipal (Paris, France, 2015), L’Atlas & Morran Ben Lahcen, Fondation Ona (Villa des Arts de Casablanca, Casablanca, 2014) and Au delà du Street Art, White Wall, Beirut Art Center (Beirut, Lebanon, 2012). He has also participated in biennials, festivals and art projects such as BIAC Martinique (Fort-de-France, 2013), Biennale de Lyon (France, 2013), Biennale des arts graphiques, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Perm (Russia, 2010). L’Atlas (France, 1978) lives and works in Paris. He is one of the most internationally recognized urban artists, he has exhibited in important institutions in Paris such as the Fondation Cartier (2009), the Grand Palais (2009), the Palais de Tokyo (2007) and the Centre Pompidou (2004). In 2017 the artist collaborated with Guerlain exhibiting at La Maison Guerlain, also in Paris. He has collaborated with well known companies such as Agnès B., Jimmy Choo and Perrier and to date there are numerous projects in which he has participated all over the world, in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
