"Receiving a painful message from my foot" by Justin Fitzpatrick is a sculptural composition featuring a linear arrangement of brown, organic shapes connected by strings, culminating in a white, foot-like form. The piece visually narrates a surreal interaction between disparate elements like a miniature tower and a clock. Fitzpatrick employs a metaphoric style, creatively linking abstract forms with physical objects. This work evokes reflection on the metaphorical connections present in metaphysical conceit poetry, highlighting the transformation of mundane experiences into imaginative expressions. ...
Justin Fitzpatrick works across the mediums of painting, sculpture and text. His recent figurative paintings and sculptures draw on the tradition of metaphysic conceit poetry, where an analogy is set up between a metaphysical quality and a physical object. The more far-fetched the relationship is between the two terms, for example in John Donne’s ‘The Flea’, the more ornamental and imaginative the poem becomes. By highlighting this distance between two terms, and the creative energy used to connect them, our attention is focussed on the performative power of metaphor itself and how it transforms reality. Subjects of Fitzpatrick’s work include an expanding collection of archetypal characters viewed through the lens of class and sexuality: the chef, the waiter, the monk, the construction worker and the police officer. ...
Founded in 2010 by Guillaume Sultana, Sultana collaborates with emerging international artists. The gallery space operates as a site for experimentation and expression, often bringing together well-established and lesser known artists through a playful, yet politically-engaged curatorial program that highlights practices concerned with questions of identity and their social ramifications. By giving space to curators and writers, in addition to artists, the gallery is committed to rethinking the traditional modes of exhibition-making and collaboration within the art world. In 2021, Sultana opened Sultana Summer Set Arles to convene artists, collectors, curators, and friends close to the gallery in a domestic and intimate space in the heart of the city. This space was conceived as a residency and site of exchange, to host projects angled toward creative freedom, reflection, and flânerie that eschews a regular programming schedule, and is organized instead according to the whims and desires of our community. These two spaces exemplify the spirit of Sultana: the desire to provide artists with an independent platform for expression via site-specific projects and curatorial propositions. ...
