Haute Event: Sorokko Gallery Opening Party for Jean Pierre Rives Exhibit

The Serge Sorokko Gallery is best known for featuring paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and photography of internationally prominent artists.

On Wednesday, September 5, the Sorokko gallery will host an exclusive opening party to celebrate the US Premiere of French artist, Jean-Pierre Rives.

The exhibition of 25 works entitled “Jean-Pierre Rives: New Paintings and Sculptures” will open to the public on September 6, 2012 and remain on view through October 10 at the Sorokko Gallery.

Rives bent and twisted his found steel, manipulating the shapes created by the resulting positive and negative spaces, then cut the beams strategically to form complex compositions in which the hardness of the steel produces a powerful juxtaposition to the soft curves. Of the sculptures being debuted Rives said, “I seek to bring lightness to that which is heavy, romanticism and poetry to that which is rigid.”

Rives sees his newest paintings as the two-dimensional reflections of his sculptures. He uses the word “impression” to describe both the technique and the philosophy applied to his canvases. The impression is made by a mark or an indentation created by pressure, as if his sculptures were dipped in tar and paint and then pressed onto the surface of a canvas.

“These are Jean-Pierre’s newest works, and I am so proud to bring them to San Francisco,” said gallery owner Serge Sorokko.  “Ever since I saw Rives’ remarkably expressive sculptures at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, I knew instantly that I had to share this experience with audiences in the U.S.”

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