de Pury & Luxembourg present their second show on international street art with VISUAL ATTACK, a solo exhibition by french artist ZEVS (b. 1977).
This show will introduce you to the artist’s world of poignant comments and site-specific interventions. ZEVS targets omnipresent corporate identities such as IBM, Coca Cola, Mc Donald’s and Louis Vuitton in his signature style manipulation that destabilises our indifference and total acceptance of their unquestioned representation in our subconscious.
The title of the exhibition derives from the artist’s Visual Attacks series,which began in the streets of Paris in the year 2000. By spraying blood red paint between the eyes of billboard models, ZEVS targets images thattypically aim at the public. Taking great care to cover up the manipulation,the models look as if they have been shot between the eyes with blood running down their faces. ZEVS thus turns an every day advertisement into some thing terrifying that obliges the passer-by to look twice while leaving him in a state of doubt and alienation.Another series, entitled Visual Rapes, focuses on legendary imagery of
superstars, which the artist retouches to erase all facial features. By doing so ZEVS simulates the function of the human brain, which fills in information gaps with associations and memorised facts. Despite having lost their characteristics, these icons still obtain the same power of recognition and hence function like a brand logo.
The series of Liquidated Logo paintings stems from his outdoor interference with headquarters of corporate brands such as Nike, McDonald’s, IBM and Coca Cola which all fall victims to the artist’s signature style of liquidating brands by pouring colour down their logos. This form of estrangement leaves the most powerful economic signature brand look as if it is melting, entrapped in an optically disturbing pattern of straight lines that recall barcodes.
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