Fragment is delighted to present the first New York solo exhibition by French artist Gaspar Willmann.
Opening reception: April 15, 6–8 pm
Show dates: April 16–May 1, 2026
I come from a world where physical separation had a lot of meaning. I remember Sundays when a sense of heartbreak would overwhelm me as I left spaces shared with friends to go back home, alone in my room. This protected space was one of waiting and stretched time, of secrets and refuge. Gaspar Willmann’s work reflects on the impact of globalization on our intimate spaces. What has become of our bedrooms, now that we can no longer retreat into them? How do we say goodbye when we carry, everywhere with us, devices that keep us permanently open to the world?
On screen, the film Glass House (20'32", 2024) evokes this reign of transparency. In reference to Sergei Eisenstein’s unfinished project Glass House (1930), the film follows Bob R., a figure living in a world where every surface is transparent. Alone in his apartment, this “everyman” drifts between recounting trivial anecdotes from his daily life and surrendering to metaphysical reflections on his condition. A second presence, “Emma F.,” emerges as an inner voice, a metaphor for the afflictions born of a world in which even the smallest secret is exposed. Beyond the reference, this glass-walled room is also the artist’s own, caught in the fragile equation of feeling privately while remaining exposed to others. I saw you read my message, why won’t you answer?
Nearly 200 years ago, in 1848, in The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote poetically that capitalism had drowned human relations in the “icy waters of selfish calculation.” Gaspar Willmann borrows this expression as the title of this new exhibition project. Glass, like ice, is cold and rigid; it draws boundaries even as it seduces. It invites projection and fantasy. Above all, it does not shield from view. It traps without concealing.
Opacity, here, emerges as a gesture of resistance. JUMAP (Juste une mise au point sur les plus belles images de ma vie) is a declaration of love for images, a desire to know them, to spend time with those that now pass through our lives in only a few seconds. These “media” paintings are assembled in Photoshop, printed onto linen canvas, and then reworked with oil paint. Edible goods, plastic packaging, cables, symbolic elements such as the hand, the magnifying glass, the window and paradisiacal sunsets surface from backgrounds shaped through cropping and blur. An intimate narrative intersects with a shared visual memory, a quiet sense of déjà vu.
Through painting, the appropriation of images becomes tactile, a process of emotional and intellectual digestion. This layered method sacralizes the gesture, deepening our bond to images and to the shifting emotions they carry. It allows time for stories to settle, to take root. Here, the multiplicity of references unfolds into imaginary worlds: Sergei Eisenstein, Karl Marx, Friedrich’s Sea of Ice, Eileen Gray’s house. No story lasts only a second. This interplay of image and video borrows from cinema, seeking to restore the possibility of extended narration, open romantic windows for contemplation. The artist proposes both an ecology of the gaze and an economy of means. Within this place, the mechanics of the image become visible, reminding us that editing is a political gesture, a device that shapes both vision and action.
We are still sitting on the same museum bench. The visit has ended. What we carry with us is the mental image we formed of the painting we were looking at. What comes back, in solitude, is its blurred, elusive memory. To see it again fully, we must return. It holds the extraordinary power to withdraw. It has the right to disappear.
— Elisa Rigoulet, April 2026
Gaspar Willmann (b. 1995, Paris) graduated from the École nationale supérieure des
Beaux-arts de Lyon. He lives and works in Paris. Through a practice combining
painting and video, both sharing a common attention to editing and appropriation,
Gaspar Willmann highlights our modes of image consumption, their processes of
circulation, as well as their affective and collective charge.
Gaspar has participated in several artist residencies, including the Cité Internationale
des Arts (Paris, 2020), the Sigg Art Foundation (Le Castellet, 2021), Villa Belleville
(Paris, 2022), Artagon (Pantin, 2023), Chappelle Saint-Antoine (Naxos, 2024) and
Yishu8 (Beijing, 2024).
He was previously awarded the Prix de Paris (Lyon, 2019) and the Roger Pailhas
Prize (Marseille, 2021). In 2022, he was a finalist for the Prix des Amis du Palais de
Tokyo. The following year, he produced a large tapestry for the Cité Internationale de
la Tapisserie d’Aubusson, resulting in the acquisition of his work by their collection. In
2024, his work was added to the public collections of FRAC Pays de la Loire and
FRAC Bretagne. That same year, he received The Salomon Foundation Residency
Award, which will allow him to stay 6 months in New York in 2026.
Gaspar's work has recently been exhibited at the FRAC des Pays de la Loire
(Nantes, 2023), Meessen-Declercq (Brussels, 2023), Liste (Basel, 2022), and the
Salon de Montrouge (Montrouge, 2021). His latest research and productions were
featured in his third solo exhibition at Exo Exo (Paris) in October 2024.
