Léonie Guyer
Nothing kept happening
January 13 - March 4th, 2023
P.Bibeau is pleased to announce Nothing kept happening, a solo exhibition by Léonie Guyer on view from January 13 through March 4, 2023.
Léonie Guyer makes the unseen key to her practice. A concern for entangled meaning allows intuition to actualize and a potential for wholeness to appear. In consideration of various surfaces such as antique and handmade paper, marble remnants, wood panels, or directly on a wall or window pane, Guyer responds to material as a conduit of time.
Conflating geometry and organic form, each singular idiosyncratic presence functions within its particular orbit in relationship with the surrounding space. Guyer's palette is comprised of various whites, blacks, grays, primary color in ancient mode (iron oxide reds, mineral blues, yellow ochres). The specific material, scale, and mark-making of each work bears witness to Guyer’s forms which are completely contained as timeless gestures confirming existence within their own domain.
As Simone Kearney has written, “The forms are the ethereal pressed into time by pigment or incision. They leave an impression, are instilled, and in turn instill in us. As if part of an elusive prism, each form is a facet, and each new instance of the form is like a cross-section from a reel that is capturing the exquisite unfolding of shape itself. Meanings collect in the creases made visible from such unfolding. But her repeated gestures of conjuring the forms, while similar in kind, are never self-same.”
These paintings and drawings reference a moment before the conception of thought or language, they are fertile ground for intention and perpetually alive providing an interruption from certainty. The space provided in the installation functions similarly to the works themselves, allowing one work per wall. Week by week the drawings will change, allowing time itself an active presence in the exhibition.
Léonie Guyer was born in New York, NY. She received a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. She lives and works in San Francisco, CA. Guyer’s work has been exhibited at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, OR; Shaker Museum, Chatham, NY; Mills College Art Museum, Oakland; lumber room, Portland, OR; Feature Inc., NYC; Peter Blum Gallery, NYC; Mitsui Fine Arts, San Rafael; Delaplane, San Francisco; odium fati, San Francisco; 2nd floor projects, San Francisco; Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto; Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA; Gallery Joe, Philadelphia; PLUSkunst, Düsseldorf; and other venues.
ARCHIVE, a limited edition artist book, was published in 2022 by LAND AND SEA Oakland. Guyer has collaborated on artist book projects with poets Franck André Jamme and Bill Berkson. Her work is held in numerous public collections including the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Reed College Art Collection; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Shaker Museum; Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; and others. She has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, University of California at Berkeley, San José State University, and elsewhere.
___________________
“On the Edge of Visibility.” Léonie Guyer with Simone Kearney. Devotion: today’s future becomes tomorrow’s archive, edited by Jarrett Earnest, PUBLIC books, 2022, pp. 272-28
Images by Michael Popp
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Untitled no. 113, 2021
oil on incised marble
23 3/8 x 16 3/4 inches
unique
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Untitled FR-41, 2013
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
10 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄4 inches
unique
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Untitled OBP-14, 2019
gouache on paper (endpaper, 19th century)
6 1/8 x 5 inches
unique
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Untitled MHK-23, 2021
watercolor and pencil on paper (India, handmade agate-burnished jute)
5 x 3 1⁄2 in
unique
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Untitled FR-37, 2010
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
13 1/4 x 9 inches
unique
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Untitled IP-18, 2020
gouache and colored pencil on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
4 1⁄2 x 4 3/8 inches
unique
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Untitled FR-49, 2016
graphite pencil on paper (France, 19th century)
5 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches
unique
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Untitled, 2020
charcoal on paper (Japan)
6 x 4 1⁄2 inches
unique
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Untitled FR-33, 2010
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
4 1/8 x 4 1⁄4 inches
unique
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Untitled IP-13, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
8 x 6 7/8 inches
unique
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Untitled FR-48, 2016
graphite pencil on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
4 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches
unique
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Untitled IP-16, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
8 5/8 x 6 3/4 inches
unique
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Untitled FR-47, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
5 7/8 x 6 inches
unique
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Untitled IP-12, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
7 1⁄2 x 6 1⁄4 inches
unique
Nothing kept happening
January 13 - March 4th, 2023
P.Bibeau is pleased to announce Nothing kept happening, a solo exhibition by Léonie Guyer on view from January 13 through March 4, 2023.
Léonie Guyer makes the unseen key to her practice. A concern for entangled meaning allows intuition to actualize and a potential for wholeness to appear. In consideration of various surfaces such as antique and handmade paper, marble remnants, wood panels, or directly on a wall or window pane, Guyer responds to material as a conduit of time.
Conflating geometry and organic form, each singular idiosyncratic presence functions within its particular orbit in relationship with the surrounding space. Guyer's palette is comprised of various whites, blacks, grays, primary color in ancient mode (iron oxide reds, mineral blues, yellow ochres). The specific material, scale, and mark-making of each work bears witness to Guyer’s forms which are completely contained as timeless gestures confirming existence within their own domain.
As Simone Kearney has written, “The forms are the ethereal pressed into time by pigment or incision. They leave an impression, are instilled, and in turn instill in us. As if part of an elusive prism, each form is a facet, and each new instance of the form is like a cross-section from a reel that is capturing the exquisite unfolding of shape itself. Meanings collect in the creases made visible from such unfolding. But her repeated gestures of conjuring the forms, while similar in kind, are never self-same.”
These paintings and drawings reference a moment before the conception of thought or language, they are fertile ground for intention and perpetually alive providing an interruption from certainty. The space provided in the installation functions similarly to the works themselves, allowing one work per wall. Week by week the drawings will change, allowing time itself an active presence in the exhibition.
Léonie Guyer was born in New York, NY. She received a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. She lives and works in San Francisco, CA. Guyer’s work has been exhibited at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, OR; Shaker Museum, Chatham, NY; Mills College Art Museum, Oakland; lumber room, Portland, OR; Feature Inc., NYC; Peter Blum Gallery, NYC; Mitsui Fine Arts, San Rafael; Delaplane, San Francisco; odium fati, San Francisco; 2nd floor projects, San Francisco; Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto; Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA; Gallery Joe, Philadelphia; PLUSkunst, Düsseldorf; and other venues.
ARCHIVE, a limited edition artist book, was published in 2022 by LAND AND SEA Oakland. Guyer has collaborated on artist book projects with poets Franck André Jamme and Bill Berkson. Her work is held in numerous public collections including the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Reed College Art Collection; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Shaker Museum; Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; and others. She has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, University of California at Berkeley, San José State University, and elsewhere.
___________________
“On the Edge of Visibility.” Léonie Guyer with Simone Kearney. Devotion: today’s future becomes tomorrow’s archive, edited by Jarrett Earnest, PUBLIC books, 2022, pp. 272-28
Images by Michael Popp
Untitled no. 113, 2021
oil on incised marble
23 3/8 x 16 3/4 inches
unique
Untitled FR-41, 2013
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
10 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄4 inches
unique
Untitled OBP-14, 2019
gouache on paper (endpaper, 19th century)
6 1/8 x 5 inches
unique
Untitled MHK-23, 2021
watercolor and pencil on paper (India, handmade agate-burnished jute)
5 x 3 1⁄2 in
unique
Untitled FR-37, 2010
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
13 1/4 x 9 inches
unique
Untitled IP-18, 2020
gouache and colored pencil on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
4 1⁄2 x 4 3/8 inches
unique
Untitled FR-49, 2016
graphite pencil on paper (France, 19th century)
5 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches
unique
Untitled, 2020
charcoal on paper (Japan)
6 x 4 1⁄2 inches
unique
Untitled FR-33, 2010
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
4 1/8 x 4 1⁄4 inches
unique
Untitled IP-13, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
8 x 6 7/8 inches
unique
Untitled FR-48, 2016
graphite pencil on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
4 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches
unique
Untitled IP-16, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
8 5/8 x 6 3/4 inches
unique
Untitled FR-47, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (France, 18th-19th century)
5 7/8 x 6 inches
unique
Untitled IP-12, 2016
colored pencil and graphite on paper (India, ledger, 19th century)
7 1⁄2 x 6 1⁄4 inches
unique