VARIATION. ENDLESS COLLAPSE V: RAPHÄEL DENIS

Raphaël Denis (Paris, 1979), a graduate of the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, lives between Paris and Brussels. His work is part of the collections of institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in Paris, the Alsace FRAC, the Museum of Art and History in Geneva, and the Kunsthaus in Zurich, as well as private collections like the Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection in Brussels, the Francès and Laurent Dumas – Emerige Collection in Paris, or the Reiner Speck Collection in Düsseldorf.

As an artist and researcher, Raphaël Denis raises historical questions related to the status of the work of art. Known for his work on the dispossession of Jewish property during the war, his work commemorates art history and analyzes the mechanisms of destruction and annihilation to which cultural objects, as expressions of human identity, can be subjected. Visually, this reflection emerges from his exploration of materials widely used in social and urban construction, such as wood, cement, and lead, with various black amalgams.

The pieces presented at NAVE N condense the main elements of “La Loi normale des Erreurs,” a series that the artist has been developing since 2015.

Exhibited at the Picasso Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Berggruen Museum in Berlin, and the Kunsthaus in Zurich, “La Loi normale des erreurs” focuses on art pieces looted from Jewish collectors during World War II, destroyed pieces, and pieces from Jewish and French dealers like Paul Rosenberg appropriated by the Nazi administration.

Variation is a project of Galerie Sator and NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ aimed at expanding the international visibility of artists from both galleries through the presentation of individual exhibition projects in Paris and Madrid.

Following “Noli me Tangere” by Clara Sánchez Sala (October 2022, Paris), “ENDLESS COLLAPSE V” by Raphaël Denis is the second edition of VARIATION and will take place in Madrid, at NAVE N, the second space of the NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ gallery, from Tuesday, February 21st, to Saturday, February 25th, 2023.