In the studio with Sylvie Fleury

“Sylvie takes familiar objects that we know from the consumer world, and she reproduces them using very interesting materials,” says Rozell. The Collection has been acquiring the artist’s work since 1994 when she was commissioned to make two paintings for UBS’s Basel offices. Those works were based on perfume advertisements, imitating their colors and typography so that the brands that inspired them were instantly recognizable.

That collaboration marked the start of an ongoing relationship.“It's important to us to work closely with artists to create new works,” says Rozell. On display in the UBS Lounge at Art Basel will be a new series of paintings, 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood (nos 3,4 and 5)', commissioned by UBS specially for the space. Three important works from the Collection, including two recent acquisitions, will also be on view.

Born in 1961 in Geneva, where she still lives and works, Fleury became known in the early 1990s for an installation of shopping bags “from places it was cool to shop at the time”, which she displayed as a readymade sculpture. Removed from their intended context, the bags became a commentary on our consumerist world. “My work is like a metaphor,” says Fleury, playing on “symbols” that have come to represent the world we live in to comment on “consumerism, which to me is the biggest problem” we face.

“I’ve always wanted to transform reality, to transform everyday objects,” she says. In the recently acquired work 'Soleil Exotica', Fleury meticulously pieces together canvases to recreate the seductive shape of a makeup palette, highlighting the connotations with which consumer items are infused.

She also uses neon in works such as 'YES TO ALL', 2020, a recent acquisition to the Collection, which alludes to the ubiquitous computer prompt: “Yes to all or delete”. The phrase is “a good question,” says Fleury, conveying both “a feeling of generosity and openness,” but also of vertigo in the confusion it hints at.

Fleury also explores gender implications within the worlds of fashion and art. “Being a feminist was always very much about doing my own thing,” the artist says. In her series of sculptures which combine legs and hands from female mannequins with elements of fashion, the works are lacquered with a special car paint that originated in the American custom car culture. The artist, who is a founding member of the She Devils on Wheels auto club, uses cars as a recurring motif in her works.

These works by Sylvie Fleury will be on display in the UBS Lounge at Art Basel.