Simon Raab – Parleau

 From 4 September to 2 October the one-man exhibition Parleau. Attraverso l’acqua by the artist Simon Raab will be held at the deconsecrated church of San Matteo in Lucca.
Raab’s work is centred on light, and over the years he has developed an approach which fuses the boundaries between painting and sculpture, abstract and figurative art.
 To describe his refined assemblages of metal and colour, the artist has invented the name “Parleau”, from the French “par l’eau”: “through water”. The term metaphorically points to the metamorphic and seductive quality of light passing through liquid or transparent matter. With this poetic play on words, Raab captures both what he does and what his public sees: an assembly of constantly moving reflections and vibrations of colour, that almost seem to speak, make sound, like running water.
 Raab creates his relief images using a complicated, almost alchemic process, which combines calculation and improvisation. It all starts with an idea, object or sensation that grips him. The artist chooses large sheets of aluminium or steel, that form a kind of platform to work on, and goes on to deforms the metal, folding, pressing and hammering it, until obtaining a polychrome bas-relief, facetted with curves and dents, that recalls the rippling movement of water.
 On this surface the artist superimposes transparent polymeric varnishes which prevent the colours from mixing and becoming opaque. The artist repeatedly adds to this translucent surface, layer upon layer, leaving visible the bare and shining metal bottom.
 The process concludes with this initially smooth sheet of steel or aluminium having become a polychrome and constantly changing bas-relief. Colours flicker and transform from one moment to the next, and the luminosity varies according to the light source and viewer’s movements. The objects appear to loose their materiality and weight due to the key elements of light and transparency; producing this effect of metamorphosis.
 Simon Raab was born in Toulouse, France, in 1952, and now lives and works in Santa Barbara (USA).