PARIS.- From the 21st April until 14th May, at its new space on rue du Mail, Galerie Triple V is presenting a large solo show by American artist John Tremblay.

Born in 1966 in Massachusetts, John Tremblay is a major contemporary figure in abstract art, who tests the sculptural limits of painting. He explores the possibilities offered by abstraction, all whilst paying particular attention to reality. John Tremblay’s pieces are inspired by music, architecture and urbanism through the prism of abstract realism.

A successor of iconic American painting trends from the second half of the 20th Century, his abstract Pop-Op compositions place themselves at the crossroads of optical art, reusing motifs and the specific colours of pop art. Oval bubbles and squircles (rectangles with rounded corners) punctuate the works of a sculptor, not without pointing out the repetitive pictorial techniques of All-over.

John Tremblay’s paintings divide themselves into groups and series in order to form ensembles where supports and surfaces come together harmoniously. Canvases and shaped canvases of unusual shapes explore the possibilities offered by a hallowed, torn frame. They become sculpture.

Galerie Triple V celebrates this contemporary artist for the second time, and has left rue du Mail space, inaugurated on 4th February 2016, at his disposal. Moreover, Vincent Pécoil, the founder of Triple V, has dedicated a monograph to the artist published by Jean-Michel Place in 2005.

JOHN TREMBLAY BY VINCENT PÉCOIL
Extracts from the first monograph dedicated to the artist
In his work, Tremblay never quotes from forms drawn directly from the tradition of abstraction. What he borrows in an oblique and discreet way, are essentially elements stemming from specific reinterpretations of abstraction, like the derivative forms of Op Art. As a result, he reintroduces forms which had been evicted from art in the form of "by-products" or "derivatives". --Vincent Pécoil, John Tremblay , Published by Jean-Michel Place, Collection 21, 2005, extract p.3

Like his 20th century avant-garde predecessors, Tremblay thus practices a kind of "abstract realism", but the "reality" of this realism is itself synthetic, or artificial. For its historial antecedents, the reality in questions was understood as what ought to happen - a reality that would see the future integration of art and reality.

The De Stijl artists were involved with the development of a purist abstraction, but still conjured up a reality transcended by the vision of what reality might be, and thereby programmed the ultimate obsolescence of art. The ultimate accomplishment of abstraction was thereby situated outside the field of aesthetics. Tremblay makes his outside-ness - formely regarded as a Utopian term - as his point of departure.

The program of avant-garde painting of the first half of the 20th century was roundly achieved, in a sense, by the cultural industry, which co-opted its strategies and forms on a massive scale. By directly and faithfully appropriating them, industry, graphic design and anonymous architecture all led to the dissolution of art in the real. Its end as an autonomous praxis had effectively arrived.

What was their "future", then, has become our present. But what future is left for us (…) A good question might be: From here on out, what are the possible futures? This is the question that Tremblay raised in a brief introductory essay for one of his shows. "Deciding what to paint is kind of like choosing a utopia."

JOHN TREMBLAY, FROM ABSTRACT TO OP ART
John Tremblay was born in 1966. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

This American artist is recognised for renewing abstraction in painting. He moves towards the Op Art trend and minimalist abstraction. Triple V has presented him at group shows including, Science Fiction #3 and Too Big to Fail (2013) and during a solo show in 2012.

Internationally renowned, he has been the subject of many exhibitions in Japan (Emon Gallery, Tokyo in 2006), Seoul (Paik Hae Gallery in 2007), New York (Paula Cooper Gallery, 2003-2008) and also in Los Angeles (Richard Telles Fine Art in 2000).