In a feature devoted to Brussels galleries, Le Quotidian de l'Art led with a highlight of Thomas Devaux's exhibition Cet Obscur Objet du Désir.
What makes Thomas Devaux so successful, whose works sell like hotcakes? His immediately recognizable photographic work draws the viewer in at first glance. The 44-year-old French artist takes up the theme of mass consumption, explained by the projection of a film showing crowd movements recorded on the occasion of Black Friday, according to the American consumerist tradition. In his series "The Shoppers", silhouettes carrying shopping bags emerge from a supermarket behind a dichroic glass with fascinating light reflections, like a screen capture from a surveillance camera. For "Rayons", consumer products have been enlarged to the point of becoming shapeless, unidentifiable masses. From small format to installation, always in elegant gilded aluminum frames, prices remain very affordable, from 2,200 to 6,500 euros for editions of 3 copies + 2 artist's proofs. The display in the immense 1,200 m2 nave is highly successful, with a monumental 180 m3 black box in the center, looking like a Kaaba. A comparison that Thomas Devaux doesn't deny, recalling that "originally, in this place, roller skaters whirled around, just as the faithful do in Mecca". The liturgical aspect is reinforced when we enter from one side into the penumbra of this black cube where large works diffuse their colored light, like the stained glass windows of a church. In fine, Devaux's desire is no longer obscure.
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