VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

San Francisco based contemporary artist, Alexis Laurent, will exhibit his paintings and sculptures at Decorative Center Houston on November 17, 2010 thru December 17, 2010, Monday thru Friday, 11:00am to 3:00pm. Laurent’s contemporary paintings and large scale urban sculptures will be on display during Decorative Center Houston’s Fall Market. In addition to Decorative Center Houston, Laurent’s work will be displayed at two other Cohen Design Centers; Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, FL on Jan. 19 and at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, CA on March 23.

Laurent’s exhibition of painting and sculpture entitled Be a Flâneur (translation “Be a Wanderer”) invites the viewer to take a journey into the urban landscape. Laurent encourages the viewer to “get lost” in the “city” that is his exhibit. It is his distinctive paintings and sculptures that distinguish the landscape that he has created. His art differentiates the space from its surroundings. Many of the materials used in Laurent’s sculptures are found in nature and portray an urban landscape.

“It is not the materials themselves, but the transformative act of the artist in fashioning them into art that startles our consciousness,” says Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

French-born American artist, Laurent, was raised in rural Southern France by his artistic parents who created and sold jewelry and crepes in the small town of Biot. Upon graduation with advanced university degrees from Aix-en-Provence and the elite Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris) in the 1990s, Laurent moved to the United States with his American wife. In 2003 he began to rethink his career in international business and decided to return to France with his wife and infant daughter. Returning to his roots and artistic home, Laurent began  to rediscover his artistic sensibility and create a narrative for his artistic vision for the future.

He returned to the U.S. in 2006 and dedicated himself to his large-scale painting. Since renovating a 9,000 sq/ft San Francisco warehouse as his studio he has had the space and opportunity to create and display his contemporary paintings and large-scale urban sculptures.

Laurent’s work will also be displayed in September at the “East Meets West on the East End” exhibit presented by Tripoli Gallery of Contemporary Art and Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery in Southampton, NY (Sept 1-29). Laurent’s sculpture “Les Chardons” was also recently selected for the 2010 Abu Dhabi Art Fair in the capital of the United Arab Emirate for the outdoor “Beyond” section of the exhibit (Abu Dhabi, UAE, Nov 4-7).

About Decorative Center Houston
Decorative Center Houston (DCH) is the leading source in the southwest for full service design needs. The epicenter of the design industry in Texas, Decorative Center Houston, houses over 40 showrooms that feature the finest furniture, fabrics, lighting, floor coverings, wall coverings, and accessories from over 1,200 interior product lines. Providing our clients with a one stop shopping experience. Located minutes away from the celebrated Galleria shopping complex, and the downtown business district, Decorative Center Houston offers tenants over 500,000 square feet of premier showroom and office space. In addition to the DCH, Cohen Design Center’s include the PDC in Los Angeles, California, DCOTA in Dania Beach, Florida, and DDB in New York, New York.

For more information regarding Decorative Center Houston please visit www.decorativecenter.com.