Described by the Paris-based artist as a "smiling fist, a sweet cocktail of blood, bubble gum and motor oil", Théo Mercier's first solo New York exhibit OIL NOW opens at Envoy tomorrow night and runs through 07.12.09.

The exhibition is largely comprised of found objects, original photographs, computer generated images, drawings, paintings, and subversive text.

Mercier juxtaposes the real and the artificial, the mundane and the extraordinary, the traditional and the radical. He functions as an experimental chemist, combining ordinary objects and social references in a lab, resulting in sublime mutations.

Punk's Not Dead transforms the envoy's cube space into a of realm of purgatory. Mercier's creations exist in this environment somewhere between the living and the dead, the growing and the decaying.

For the piece entitled The Mall, Mercier refers to Pink Floyd's The Wall, constructing a grid of objects, abandoned by their owners and re-acquired by the artist at local flea markets. Mercier then removes these objects from society, isolating them from the conventional culture in which they functioned and re-animating them in a sophisticated conceptual conversation on American consumerism.

This recycling of the ordinary is apparent in Slayer Fan. Locks of Barbarella blond hair attached to a standard functioning ceiling fan, result in a vulgar yet divine tribute to the intensity of rock.

Mercier has previously worked for Matthew Barney and continues to collaborate with fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm. For his installation at Envoy, Mercier worked closely with his studio-mate from Paris, Colin Johnco, who runs two record labels Les Enregistrements de l' Europe Parisien and Colin Johnco Records.

OIL NOW
Théo Mercier
Envoy
New York
06.04 - 07.12.09
Opening: 06.04.09 6-8pm