Vincent Fecteau
Vincent Fecteau, Untitled, 2011. Gypsum cement, resin clay, and synthetic-polymer paint, 16 x 24 x 23 1/2 in. (40.6 x 61 x 59.7 cm). Collection of the artist. © Vincent Fecteau; courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin; greengrassi, London; Matthew Marks, New York. Photograph by Ian Reeves
Born in 1969 in Islip, New York
Lives and Works in San Francisco
In Vincent Fecteau’s sculptures, the viewer’s eye discerns fragments of the familiar. On a closer look, however, or from a slightly different angle, these suggestions flee, only to be replaced by something distinctly original and unidentifiable. The artist creates each piece through a long process of addition and subtraction, approaching a figurative reference before backing away again, ultimately striking a balance to hold the work suspended between the everyday and the unfamiliar.
When beginning a new body of work, Fecteau allows the materials to guide the art. To create the pieces on viewin the 2012 Biennial, he first made a clay model and cast it in gypsum cement, then heavily reworked the cement cast with resin clay, and finally painted the piece. Fecteau’s attention to the interplay of volume, density, and surface—manifested in the application of color as well as the painstakingly worked and reworked form—results in sculptures that appear to be constantly in flux, simultaneously open and turning inside themselves.
