Joël Andrianomearisoa’s Miracle Textiles at Almine Rech

Andrianomearisoa’s solo exhibition, Miracle, opened March 6th at Almine Reich’s Upper East Side gallery and runs through April 19th. Gallery founder Almine Rech is “excited to show Joël in New York for the first time and to share his work with American collectors.”

Rech says Andrianomearisoa “will also be celebrating moments with The Met, where he will be permanently on view as part of the newly opened Rockefeller wing in the African Art collection, and at the Smithsonian in D.C., where he will be part of a group exhibition, this spring.” 

Rech hopes “this visibility offers a wide discovery of his work, and an appreciation of its delicate, fine intricacies. Our show, titled Miracle, actually refers to the hands and the sophisticated things they can create. Joël's handmade natural fiber works (sourced from his birthplace in Madagascar) are not only works of art, but a testament to the amazing abilities of our hands."

Andrianomearisoa explains, “Miracle is a project that goes beyond the subject of the exhibition. There was the long temporality of research and exploration. Beyond borders... on multiple geographies. Through materials, techniques, and practices. To reach today a commitment, an affirmation, a statement. A manifesto on and around the hand. The hand. Miracle speaks of all aspects of the hand, from a hand geography to a hand that gives form to a narrative... from a Malagasy hand that caresses time, to a hand of the world that amplifies desires, from the strength of the hand that produces miracles… emotions.” 

Andrianomearisoa reflects on “the power of the hand” and the “way it engages with material.” The way a hand touches and caresses, weaves and embroiders, grasps, scratches and slaps, expresses triumph or resistance is “highly technical, but also deeply symbolic. It carries history, ritual, and memory.”

Andrianomearisoa divides his time between France and his birthplace, Antananarivo, Madagascar. Chosen to represent Madagascar at his country’s first ever Vienna Biennale pavilion in 2019, Andrianomearisoa’s installation I have forgotten the night, crafted of massive sheafs of torn black silk paper hanging like a cloud of bats from the ceiling, evoked a sense of wondrously eerie eldritch otherness. 

Miracle promises to be a similarly evocative experience. Structured in three distinct sections—Hands, Figures and Gestures, and Miracle—the exhibition creates a sensory and conceptual experience. 

Raffia is an integral part of this exhibition, used to add color, texture, and shape to black tapestries and gallery walls. It’s also woven, braided, or embroidered into flowers, bouquets, and words that emerge from painted canvases and textile backgrounds, or laid on pedestals, as if a two dimensional sketch suddenly materialized into three dimensions. 

“To round out the narration, the miracle is accompanied by raffia fiber,” Andrianomearisoa says. “A timeless vegetal, fragile and also an item of resistance.” A fiber harvested from palmyra palm trees indigenous to Southeast Asia, and South and Central America, some of the best raffia comes from Madagascar. Known for its exceptional durability and flexibility, raffia has been an important part of Malagasy art and culture for centuries. 

“It’s in those miracles of hands that the exhibition articulates with the raffia fiber in all its forms and possibilities, to give new values… new gestures… miracles. Miracle of the day or of every day. In the illusion of the world of miracles. The miracle of form. A true miracle, miracle of life. Yes. Oh, yes, we can believe in miracles.”

Andrianomearisoa’s work is very physical, requiring extremely careful, steady hands, and his textile work draws on hundreds of years of Malagasy arts and crafts traditions. Imbued with a strong historical foundation, his work creates connections between past, present, and future, bridging cultural gaps and creating a visual and emotional translation of sorts through the exhibition’s universal experience. 

Andrianomearisoa uses texture, history, language, and place to evoke a visceral response that is an act of emotional translation. His art allows the viewers to experience a shared geography of emotion.