Louis Lambert: At 107,280 kilometers per hour

2 October 2024 - 10 January 2025
  • Overview
    Louis Lambert, also known as 3TTMAN, returns with a solo exhibition at Delimbo Gallery titled At 107,280 kilometers per hour.
    Among the influences that feed his work are automatism, naïve art, neo-primitivism, art brut and fauvism. Thesemovements are reflected in his bold chromatic palette, which is characterized by pure, intense colors that evoke light and space; an arbitrary use of color that reveals his emotional state; simplification of forms; balanced, expressive composition; original designs; and a break with classical perspective. In addition, Lambert experiments with techniques and materials ranging from acrylic and oil, to waxes, spray paint, cement and polychrome silicones, creating marked textures that define his unique style.

    Louis Lambert (Lille, 1978) is a French artist living in Spain since 2001. 3ttman (pronounce “3 têtes man”) is his alter ego with three heads whom he began painting in the streets of Lille in 1999, according to the artist it depicts the profound complexity of human beings and the different views that arise from one same situation. The primitive art and its intuitive force particularly fascinate lambert. Multifaceted, he assimilates in his work popular languages to make clear the innate ability of any form of expression to transcend the mundane and become art. By paying special attention to material experimentation, he has innovated with a myriad of techniques using cement, silicone, papier maché, oriental ceramics, and a wide range of different formats ranging from painting, sculptures… to large-scale mural work. To him, creative pleasure is inseparable from the process; he enjoys working and it is directly reflected in his particular style: dynamic, colorful, cheerful and authentic.
     
    His interventions have led him to work with renowned institutions such as the Tate Modern (Street walking tour 2008), El País (ARCO 2012), the Spanish embassy (realization of a mosaic wall 30 meters in Hanoi 2010), the MUVIM (Valencian Museum of the Enlightenment and modernity), and participate in top international mural festivals.
  • Exhibition text

    At 107,280 kilometers per hour by Ricardo Suárez Acosta
    At this moment we are on a planet, a multicolored fireball, eight thousand two hundred million human beings flying around the sun at an average speed of one hundred seven thousand two hundred eighty thousand kilometers per hour. This unusual fact, unknown to the majority of these many millions of people, has caught the attention of Louis Lambert and motivates him to reflect in this unique exhibition. He analyzes this surprising and colossal event and comes to the conclusion that everything loses or gains meaning; everything is relativized, living on a sphere that physical and chemical principles keep afloat on a dark, unknown, incognito and infinite stage.
    We live on this surface and we have to enjoy life as something extraordinary, as something as amazing as the innumerable fundamentals such as speed, thrust, force, pressure, gravity that make us enjoy complex and simple aspects of our daily or unusual existence.
    In this transcendental and extraordinary context, Louis Lambert captures the essence of his environment, almost decisive moments, reflecting the relationship of man with the environmental richness of the earth, the interaction of man with his world when it is convenient, and the impact of globalization, revisiting and rescuing the most mundane, where the essence of happiness lies, the enjoyment of life.
    His artistic approach is characterized by an authentic gaze, free from the constraints of academic norms and conventional training. Through spontaneity and without fear of established norms, this timeless artist distances himself from the demands of the market and contemporary fashions. His pictorial practice takes place in his studio, where he creates for himself, introspectively, as opposed to his mural interventions, which require a connection with the public and a response to the demands of each commission.
    Among the influences that nourish his work are Automatism, Naive Art, Neo-Primitivism, Art Brut and Fauvism. These currents are reflected in his bold chromatic palette, characterized by pure and intense colors that evoke light and space; an arbitrary use of color that reveals his emotional state; the simplification of forms; a balanced and expressive composition; original designs; and a break with classical perspective. In addition, Lambert experiments with techniques and materials ranging from acrylics and oils to waxes, spray paint, cement, and polychrome silicones, creating distinct textures that define his unique style.
    With an almost childlike, innocent approach to his modes of expression, this plastic magician-creator plays with painting without adhering to current, corseted and pre-established norms, integrating elements of the archaic, the popular and a sincere ingenuity in each creation. His work is an intuitive and primitive expression that does not leave the viewer indifferent, capturing his attention either by the vivid use of color or by the themes explored.
    In relation to this search for artistic innocence, we can recall the words of Ernest H. Gombrich, a renowned author in the history of art, who points out that "there is nothing more modern than to return to the origins and to achieve that innocence of the primitive, that 'deliberate regression'". This longing to recover what is essential and authentic in art is precisely what defines Louis Lambert's proposal.
    We are all traveling at supersonic speed in the same "spaceship" called Earth; we are all going to the same place, to the same destination, to the same vital goal. Everything is simpler than it appears. Thus, Louis Lambert appropriates a quote from the incomparable Charles Bukowski regarding his professional lifestyle and his way of understanding this unique and unrepeatable journey: "An intellectual is someone who says a simple thing in a complicated way. An artist is one who says a complicated thing in a complicated way.
  • Paintings
    • Farándula I, 2024 Louis Lambert (3ttman)
      Farándula I, 2024
      Louis Lambert (3ttman)
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    • Farándula II, 2024 Louis Lambert (3ttman)
      Farándula II, 2024
      Louis Lambert (3ttman)
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    • Farándula III, 2024 Louis Lambert (3ttman)
      Farándula III, 2024
      Louis Lambert (3ttman)
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  • Monotypes
  • Concrete works
  • Scuptures