Fabien Castanier Gallery is excited to present a solo exhibition for French contemporary artist, RERO. The exhibition, entitled IMAGO, is on view March 26 through April 23, commencing with an opening reception with the artist on Saturday March 26^th. This will be the fifth solo exhibition for RERO at the Castanier Gallery, marking ten years of collaboration that began in 2012 with his first solo outing in the U.S. Presenting a new body of mixed media work, RERO continues to transcend genres with his provocative text-based pieces.

IMAGO will expound the raw power of words set upon both society’s most humble and grand backdrops. While RERO’s medium varies to embolden the meaning behind his statements, at times rugged and industrial as poured concrete or filled with deep sentiment as resin covered found objects, for this exhibition he has chosen to conduct a philosophical snapshot of our current moment. Entrenched within a time of extreme change, the artist posits an alternative reality, one that speaks towards a more hopeful and attainable future.

The term “imago” carries multiple intertwined meanings, and this polysemy of interpretations sits at the foundation of RERO’s work for his exhibition. The notion of “imago” is rooted within two main sectors. Latin for “image” the term is both the final stage in the metamorphosis of a butterfly or a moth, the optimal state it reaches through its process of growth and development, and an unconscious idealized mental image of someone, especially a parent or loved one, who influences a person’s behavior or promotes, develops and facilitates change, resilience, and independence. The chosen phrases for RERO’s varied corpus of works circulate around these concepts of change and the chase towards an ideal. Dreams and ambitions mix with skepticism and often sarcasm, where his text delves into the complex psychosis of one who has lived, and perhaps suffered, through our modern world.

RERO’s work encourages balance. The ever-present strikethrough of his text is meant as a purposeful obfuscation of his intentions. Rather than lean into the extremes of his text’s sentiments, the artist prefers to leave the interpretation up to the viewer. One need not condone excessiveness nor austerity, but live somewhere in the middle. A poignant attitude to armor oneself with when faced with the frequent severity of opinions sampled within the pieces’ bold declarations.

Intriguing, luminous, rich in modern and transgressive poetry, RERO’s works have been presented at the MAC/VAL, the Center Pompidou, the CentQuatre, the Vasarely Foundation, the Grand Palais and the MAC Bogotá. Full of audacity, his off-format installations have taken root on the dunes of the Moroccan desert, in the heart of Latin America and in the landscapes of California.