MILAN.- On Thursday, 24 September 2026, at 6 p.m., A arte Invernizzi opens a new solo exhibition by Michel Verjux, a French artist with whom it has a long-standing relationship, which began in 2001 with their first collaboration.
Since 1983, Verjux has been developing his artistic practice through clairages – light installations consisting of projections of geometric figures – squares, cones, cylinders and other shapes – conceived in close relation to the architecture and the specific characteristics of the location in which they are created. By treating light as the primary element of his artistic language, the artist explores the act of seeing as a point of encounter with reality, whilst leaving room for action, thought and feeling: his investigation into the limits of perception takes place by generating a continuous dialogue between space, vision and presence, transforming each installation into an experience capable of redefining the relationship between the artwork, its surroundings and the observer.
As Harald Szeemann wrote, Michel Verjux belongs to that generation of artists who emerged in the mid-1980s and who, being “familiar” with “the magical function of the object in the Beuysian tradition and with the evocative freedom of conceptual art”, explored the genesis of the image through an analysis of the exhibition space.
His art seeks to educate the eye towards knowledge, adding indices and never seen signs to the visual language in order to enrich the perception of reality: the light projection becomes a concrete gesture within the experience of a specific situation with which one is called upon to interact, so as to reveal the relationships that exist between the various levels of reality. Verjux himself described his creative approach in these terms: “My artistic practice is largely centred on the process (or mechanism) that brings into play energy, matter and the act of giving form to what is immediately before us and surrounds us. A process (or mechanism) which, in my view, must enable the viewer to have an experience”.
The clairages, specially designed for this occasion, highlights certain specific architectural features of the gallery: from the wide central staircase with its minimalist balustrade design, to the threshold connecting one exhibition hall to another, to the rounded junction between two perpendicular walls.
“It may be a simple exhibition, a simple illumination of what is already there within a particular setting; but in reality, it is a ‘what is already there’ that is ironically and insistently brought to the visitor’s attention”. (Michel Verjux, 2001)
Alongside the clairages are a number of works created from sheets of stainless steel, bent and cut to form semi-circular slits; through the contrast between solid and void, these works highlight how space is a necessary condition for their existence.
Through this exhibition, Verjux prompts reflection not only on the process and the relationship, but also on how the work is received: everything depends on what one expects or desires, on what one wants and, in particular, on what one seeks – and on what reality is capable of offering in return. Does the vision reveal “the whole or just a part of it?”. The French artist’s scepticism remains suspended in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s following assertion: “there is no single method, but many methods”.
A bilingual volume will be published in conjunction with the exhibition, with an essay by Francesco Tedeschi, a text by Michel Verjux, the reproductions of the artworks on display and an updated bio-bibliographic section.
