Sylvie Fleury (born 24 June 1961) is a Swiss contemporary
pop artist known for her
installations,
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, and
mixed media
In visual art, mixed media describes work of art, artwork in which more than one Art medium, medium or material has been employed.
Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different List of art media, media. M ...
. Her work generally depicts objects with sentimental and aesthetic attachments in
consumer culture, as well as the paradigm of the
new age
New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
, with much of her work specifically addressing issues of gendered consumption and the fetishistic relationships to consumer objects and art history.
Fleury lives and works in Geneva.
Biography
Sylvie Fleury was born on June 24, 1961, in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, Switzerland. After her initial schooling, her parents sent her to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to work as an
au pair. She ended up falling in with a group of NYU students working on short art films.
She then went on to study photography at the Germain School of Photography in 1981.
While living in New York she worked as an assistant for fashion photographer
Richard Avedon for one day.
Fleury then travelled onto India where she encountered learned Bharatanatyam dance, she returned to Geneva and worked for the
Red Cross. Under the pseudonym of Silda Brown, she began to collect items marked with a red cross. She converted her apartment into a dentist's cabinet because she was able to acquire a practice facility at a reasonable price.
[Die Zeit (retrieved 12 November 2008)](_blank)
/ref> In 1990 she met the Swiss performance artist John Armleder from Geneva and became his assistant. In the same year she and Armleder moved to Villa Magica, a large old town house on the outskirts of Geneva.
In 2004 Fleury and Armleder and his son Stéphane Armleder (1977), founded the Geneva Record Label Villa Magica Records. The label also published CDs and LPs from John Armleder and Sylvie Fleury, from Rockenschaub and John B. Rambo (aka Stéphane Armleder).
Career
Fleury's first show was at Rivolta Gallery in Lausanne in 1990 alongside Olivier Mosett and John Armleder. Through that show she met Eric Troncy and was invited to be a part of his seminal 1991 exhibition No Man's Time at the Villa Arson in Nice, France.
In 1993 Fleury participated in the curated portion of the 45th Venice Biennale. In the roaming section curated by Benjamin Weil, she had 3 models walking throughout Venice wearing reproductions of Yves Saint Laurent's Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...
dress.
Critics have labeled her work "post- appropriationist", and her books ''The Art of Survival'', ''First Spaceship on Venus and Other Vehicles'', and ''Parkett #58'' (with Jason Rhoades and James Rosenquist), have been featured internationally. In 2015, she won the Prix de la Société des arts de Genève.
Fleury's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, and the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
Publications
* ''Sylvie Fleury – The Art of Survival''. Neue Galerie Graz, Graz 1993.
* Sylvie Fleury: ''Sylvie Fleury''. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 1999, .
* Götz Adriani (Hrsg.): ''Sylvie Fleury – 49000''. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2001.
*''Centre of Attraction''. 8th Baltic Triennale. Bd. 1, Revolver, Frankfurt am Main 2003, .
* Elke Kania u. a.: ''The Sublime is Now! Das Erhabene in der zeitgenössischen Kunst''. Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf/Schweiz 2006.
* ''Sylvie Fleury''. CAC Málaga, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga. Málaga 2011, .
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleury, Sylvie
1961 births
Living people
Swiss women artists
20th-century Swiss women artists
21st-century Swiss women artists
Swiss contemporary artists
Swiss sculptors
Artists from Geneva
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres