Lenox, MA-July 22, 2010-Figurative and abstract sculpture, photography, kinetic sculpture, mechanical inventions and dreamlike video installations are the focus of a new exhibit at The Mount, opening July 29. "Interacting With History: Xavier Veilhan at The Mount" explores how contemporary works relate to a
historical environment. To this end, Veilhan's pieces have been placed to create a dialog between old and new, apparent to visitors moving through the house's public and private spaces.

Admission to Interacting With History is free with general admission to The Mount. The exhibition runs through the end of October.
Xavier Veilhan, who lives and works in Paris, is one of the most prominent contemporary artists in France. He has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the US, including those at the Kukje Gallery, Seoul (2010), Château de Versailles (2009), Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Torino (2008), Gering &
López Gallery, New York (2007), and the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004). His work is part of the collections of several European and American museums, and he has installed public projects
throughout France.
 

 

Interacting With History includes eight works from private collections and the Gering & López Gallery in New York. Veilhan often makes art historical references while maintaining his own distinctive style. He is known for embracing generic or historically identifiable subjects - whether figures or objects, whose details he deliberately strips away using cutting edge, computer‐aided technology, resulting in strikingly minimalist, geometric forms. This technique is illustrated in the diminutive statue of Yan (2010), who stands just six inches high but is a masterpiece of an intricate geometry that still remarkably retains a human shape. At a quick glance, Amish Vibration (2009) is a perfectly proportionate horse drawn carriage.