Édouard Montassut is pleased to present several sculptures by New York based artist Matthew Langan-Peck (1988, US), bringing together a selection of old and recent works.

Langan-Peck creates a sculptural vocabulary using commonplace forms from art and commercial visual culture. Content or context based gestures are largely avoided, instead the works function first like “plop art” — the genre of sculptures found in places like corporate plazas and shopping malls. The typology of forms, including bent nails, airplane windows, and textual letters, are rendered relatively neutral by their pop ubiquity. But on the surface of the sculptures, through slathers of paint, Langan-Peck addresses “topics,” whichever lay closest to hand, pushing these to the edge of satire and melodrama.

The spectre of figuration hovers around the works — silhouettes dance across a photo collage of empty drinks and an outfit lays on a bed before a night out. The nail ("untitled, Nail 6", 2016) and the airplane frame ("One Night", 2017) appear to be dressed, and the "J-" (2019), inspired by a radio jingle advertising Juvederm, points towards the anti-aging injectable filler that is probably the most popular and personal form of sculpture today. These surfaces allow a place for characters to unfold — a leftist, a fashionista, a patriot, an athlete, a macho, a car enthusiast, etc.