Denis Gardarin Gallery is pleased to announce its second solo exhibition with French conceptual artist Mathieu Mercier. Gardarin will present Mercier’s iconic diamant series of seven new paintings that have never before been exhibited. Building on the Gallery's practice of mounting migrating programs in non-traditional venues, this exhibition will explore Mercier's work within the context of the James A. Farley Post Office in New York City. Each of the seven works will be shown in consecutive rooms on the fourth floor of the historic landmark known today as Skylight at Moynihan Station and future home of Fashion Week. Mathieu Mercier: diamants 2015 will be on view from May 13th to May 16th, 2015.

The works are true to their title: diamant. Each piece looks like a diamond yet simultaneously functions as an abstract painting. As abstraction is shaped into a representation of pure value the paintings become a sophisticated visual pun. At a time when the international art world descends on NYC for the spring auction season and the Frieze Art Fair, the diamant series can be viewed as a self-reflexive comment on the art market itself – art objects, like precious gems, are converted into valuable assets through speculation.

Just as the Diamants look like diamonds yet function as abstract paintings, Skylight at Moynihan Station exists within the historic post office and future railway station, but will function as an art space. With this project, diamonds transcend their usual role of representing exclusivity. While these precious gems are unattainable and inaccessible to most, Denis Gardarin Gallery’s exhibition enables Diamants to create access: they allow visitors to enter parts of a National Historic Landmark normally closed to the public. Playing the role of “diamonds in the rough,” Mercier’s works also have a restorative function: their beauty harkens back to the original architectural grandeur and glory of the historic James A. Farley Post Office building.

Mathieu Mercier: diamants 2015 will be open to the public May 13th to May 16th from 10am to 6pm.

About Mathieu Mercier

French conceptual artist Mathieu Mercier uses everyday objects to explore ideas of the line between functionality and artistic purposelessness. His work investigates key tropes of modern art and design. Mercier’s oeuvre bridges mediums and styles in its interrogation of utopian movements such as De Stijl and Russian Constructivism while engaging mass-produced consumer objects. The congruities on view in Mercier’s works highlight the evolution of the concept of modernity and underscore the artist’s interest in using ordinary objects to explore the larger cultural context within which they exist, referring to avant-gardes such as Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian.

Born in 1970, Mercier has exhibited at many major museums and institutions around the world, including solo exhibitions at Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany; Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; FRAC Bourgogne, France; Le Crédac, Centre d’Art Contemporain d’Ivry, Ivry, France; Foundation d’Entreprise Ricard d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; and Kunsthalle Nürmberg, Germany; amongst others. In 2003, Mercier was honored with the prestigious Marcel Duchamp award.

About Denis Gardarin Gallery

Denis Gardarin Gallery was founded in 2014 to engage with the cultural shift in art production and reception in this era of globalization. Conceived principally as a platform for artists, the gallery interrogates the notion of physical site through a migrating program that mounts museum-quality exhibitions in an international context. Denis Gardarin Gallery focuses on comprehensive investigations of artists who are leaders across disciplines, movements, and eras, initially focusing on the practices of conceptual artist Mathieu Mercier, early leader of Brazilian Concretism Geraldo de Barros, figurative painter Ryan Mosley, and key figure of the Actionist movement Rudolf Polanszky.

French-born Gardarin brings over 20 years of experience to this venture as an art advisor, artist liaison, and gallerist, working with influential contemporary artists at Brent Sikkema, New York, Sean Kelly, New York, White Cube, London, and most recently as co-founder of Tierney Gardarin, New York. As liaison to Laurent Grasso, Antony Gormley, Tracy Emin, Josiah McElheny, Kris Martin, Vik Muniz, Janaina Tschape and Cerith Wyn Evans among others, Gardarin has partnered with prominent international institutions to produce critically acclaimed exhibitions. Gardarin, in partnership with a select group of artists, will work to develop, support and expand the scope and reception of each artist’s vision.

All images: Mathieu Mercier, Untitled (Diamant), 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 5 cm (59.06 x 1.97 in)