Open Heaven
Lauren Clay

About the Exhibition

Galerie PJ is pleased to present Open Heaven, an exhibition that explores Lauren Clay’s ability to establish a dialogue between the physical and the supernatural, where the notion of “place” and the spiritual atmosphere inherent to architectural spaces form the foundation of her practice.

The artist presents here a new body of work including a wall-scale wallpaper installation, as well as a group of sculptures and works on paper. This installation profoundly transforms the architecture of the gallery, shifting it into a dreamlike environment where spatial reference points are deliberately altered.

The wallpapers are conceived from miniature panoramic collages, meticulously handmade using marbled papers and developed according to the specific dimensions of the exhibition space. These compositions are then scanned and translated into high-resolution digital files before being printed onto vinyl. All of the physical details of the original collage are preserved in the enlargement, generating an illusionistic wall covering that produces a trompe-l’œil effect. This device reinforces the formal principles of the sculptures while further intensifying the distortion of space, layering multiple levels of illusion.

For this exhibition, however, the wallpaper was produced using a slightly different process: a carved relief was first created, and then paper was embossed to generate the image. The embossed paper was subsequently digitized and combined digitally with the marbled paper. The enlarged print of the embossed paper thus echoes the sculpted curvature of the works, while maintaining a particularly soft visual quality at the scale of the wall.

The sculptures, in turn, are made from high-density polyurethane, a material that Lauren Clay hand-carves using traditional wood-carving tools. The surfaces are then sanded and painted in oil to simulate marble and woodgrain effects. Shadows and gradients are deliberately heightened, enhancing the illusionistic quality of the works and bridging the gap between the material and the ethereal.

Here we are in spring. The gallery space reorganizes itself naturally, revealing an expanding universe, brought into light by an installation that enters into dialogue with the site. It unfolds like a dream, extending the impulses of waking life.

The installation takes its essence from the architecture of the gallery, drawing its energy from the inherent force of the place. Carried by this dynamic, Lauren Clay invites us to cross the threshold, to leave behind the original neutrality of the space. We are then immersed in a visual environment where a sense of re-emergence unfolds, of possible renewal opening toward the sky. Its boundless expanse becomes a marbled surface upon which sculptures and drawings are revealed: this is the realm of impulse.

The works presented, through their curves and colors, evoke small oblong confections that envelop us and invite us to veer, to look, to contemplate these symbols of transition : stairs, doorways, and windows. Materialities forming frames unique to each of us, revealing themselves while suspending the intervention of memory, making way for desire and imagination. Immaterial signs sketching out a path filled with hope.

Veiled in mist and filled with curiosity, let us attune ourselves to an epidermal softness.