I love you, I love you

I love you, I love you @ 47 Canal
April 4 – May 3, 2025

The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. ––Vincent van Gogh

What are traces of love? What is left of it in the physical world? A bouquet of flowers, perfume lingering in the air, a loving note on a table?

How about a fleeting intimate moment, a drawing in condensation after a shower?

Can love be captured? Can it be transmitted? What about its absence, phantom love? Does it always have to hurt?

I am a happily self-diagnosed enneagram type 2. According to the literature, my biggest fear is not to be loved. So I use flattery to charm and express my love as a manipulative tool to get the reassurance I am craving. Insert here the title of this exhibition: “I love you, I love you.”

A power struggle is instilled. Will you love me back?

It’s clear to me now that art follows a love language. To get canonized, art is better off behaving as a bad lover: aloof, distant.

Only as van Gogh put it, love is the way. Love, I would add, in all of its candor and manipulative undertones, started to feel like an act of resistance.

––Antoine Catala, April 2025

The artist would like to thank Sean Raspet, Alex Hayden for fabricating the works in the exhibition, Benjamin Mattoon for the extra hand, Timmy Simonds for the conversations in generating the ideas behind this exhibition, Kristian Kilian from Vitacoat for the guidance and all 47 Canal staff.