Juan Uslé Now Represented by Galerie Lelong & Co., New York

Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, is pleased to now represent Juan Uslé (b. 1954). Represented by the Paris location of the gallery since 2011, Uslé’s relationship with the gallery will now extend to New York. A selection of the artist’s recent paintings and works on paper will be presented in the gallery’s online Viewing Room through June 18, 2020. In a four-decade career between Saro, Spain, and New York City, Uslé works primarily in painting and photography. His vivid paintings and works on paper are characterized by their entrancing rhythmic patterns.

Often associated with the reemergence of abstract painting in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Uslé’s work is widely recognized for gestural brushstrokes that are systematically applied to canvas while guided by the artist’s own heartbeat. The sequential rhythm resulting from this performative act generates a vibrating, atmospheric sensation of varying intensity. Up close in large- and small-scale paintings, the brushstrokes reveal a state of intrinsic duality: repetition yet singularity.

“I mean to discover what is essentially different in every painting, treating each painting as an equal- size body, but with a different soul,” Uslé says. He refers to his groups of works as “families,” of which the best known is Soñe que revelabas [I Dreamt That You Revealed], originated in 1997 and ongoing.

Uslé summons inspiration from landscapes and memories both lived and dreamt: vibrations in bustling New York City, the fluidity of rivers and uncharted bodies of water, the colors of childhood in northern Spain. In recent years, the use of light to generate emotion rather than volume has been a central focus for the artist.

Mary Sabbatino, Vice President/Partner at Galerie Lelong & Co., says, “After nine years with Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, we are pleased to welcome Juan Uslé to the gallery in New York. Uslé’s embrace of the emotional and sensorial dimensions of abstraction and the relationship to the natural world amplifies many of the values within the gallery’s program, while opening a new door into formal language.”

About the Artist

In March 2020, Juan Uslé was announced as the 13th winner of the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Foundation’s Drawing Prize. In 2002, he won Spain’s National Award for Plastic Arts. Uslé has participated in the Venice Biennale (2005), documenta IX (1992), the Istanbul Biennial (1992) and the Bienal de São Paulo (1985).

His recent solo museum exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Fundacion Marcelino Botin, Santander, Spain; SMAK, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuale Kunst, Gante, Belgium; IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain.

His work is included in public collections around the world, including the Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Colección Arte Contemporáneo Fundación «la Caixa», Barcelona, Spain; IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg; Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal; SMAK, Stedelïjk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gante, Belgium; and Tate Modern, London, UK.