Michael Zelehoski ‘Object Permanence’ at Backslash Gallery

A few weeks ago openedAmerican artist Michael Zelehoski Object Permanence, his first solo show in France at Backslash Gallery in Paris.
Object Permanence involves a series of dynamic works created from materials found on the streets of New York City and upstate New York and consists of transformed found objects, mostly discarded wood pieces which he later deconstructs and puzzles back together creating intricate two-dimensional wall-mounted assemblages, optical illusions that challenge our perception of the physical world.

To create these complex assemblages, the artist has cut and joined the found materials sometimes hundreds of times, inlaying them within planes of black or white that traverse positive and negative space. The compositional fragments are tied together, literally and conceptually, by tensed cable, which disrupts traditional spatial delineations by transforming the actual into the graphic and vice versa.
This duality between three-dimensional reality and two-dimensional representation is at the crux of Zelehoski’s work; it points to a deeper reconciliation of mind and reality. Object Permanence unhinges the fixed reality of objects, unveiling instead their dynamic existence born within the perceptive faculties of our minds. The very act of visualization involves a mental process of isolation and abstraction that turns the perceived object into an archetype. Zelehoski’s work is a literal manifestation of this phenomena in which every object remains unique. By distilling an object in the picture plane, it becomes both a projection of reality as well his mental image of it. When confronting the object – now autonomous from the rest of space and abstracted by the artist’s creative lens – we re-evaluate not only its aesthetic significance, but also the aesthetic potential of yet-to-be-found objects outside of the gallery. – Backslash Gallery

For those who are lucky enough to be in Paris at this time, the show runs until November 28th at the gallery located on 29 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth 75003 Paris.

All images © Backslash Gallery