LOOK

23 MAY – 20 JUNE 2025 

It's been over 40 years since the rise of Cinéma du Look, a French film movement from the 80's associated with directors like Leo Carax, Luc Besson, and Jean-Jacques Beineix. Focused on spectacle and irreverence, these films were often accused of choosing style over substance. Instead, they revealed the possibility for style to be substance in its own right. Cinema Du Look went on to permeate the culture, influencing visual culture well beyond film. Decades later, Rajiv Menon Contemporary presents LOOK, an exploration of how an aesthetic movement from one time and place can be reimagined in others. The young artists in LOOK explore questions of style, fantasy, and a heightened sense of atmosphere, but also reveal profound emotional truths. These artists speak to the legacy of cinema du look by seeing style and decadence as a vehicle to explore deeper questions of alienation and pleasure.