March 26–April 25, 2015
Opening: March 25, 6–9pm
Parisian Laundry
3550 St-Antoine West
Montreal (Quebec)
Canada, H4C 1A9
www.parisianlaundry.com
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Parisian Laundry is pleased to present a new exhibition by Montreal-based artists Carlos & Jason Sanchez. In the main gallery, seven large-scale photographs capture arresting scenes of narrative and psychological intensity. These new images reference the spectacular visual languages of film and photojournalism while exploring themes such as youth, sensuality, creativity and fear. The artists do not merely capture spectacle, however. Rather, the brothers somehow manage to turn inward; foregrounding isolated and nuanced instances of deep subjective contemplation.
Narrative is a key driving force in the Sanchez’s practice. Their images tell stories, thus allowing the viewer a momentary glance in witnessing what unfolds. But what is the role of narrative if not to provide a legible succession of events? In their work, narrative tropes are heightened, yet plots are never quite revealed and the public is left piecing together what they are experiencing. In many ways, the images are then less devices for a given narrative arc than about narrative itself. There are certainly recurring motifs in terms of content: empathy, intense affect, psychological turmoil and a sense of the sublime, to name a few. However, are these not the elements of any good story, the ingredients that keeps fingers flipping through pages and eyes glued to a screen?
Carlos & Jason Sanchez have exhibited worldwide, in cities such as Montreal, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Brussels, Zurich, Madrid, Beijing, Dubai and Amsterdam. Their work is included in many prestigious public and private collections such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Canada, le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Foam Fotografiemuseum (Amsterdam), Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, le Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Gemeentemuseum Helmonds (Netherlands), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art amongst others.
The brothers are currently in pre-production on a feature film that is being produced by micro_scope (Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, Tu Dors Nicole). Shooting will begin in June. In addition to writing the screenplay, the pair will also be directing the project.