Artist Statement
I’m a reader, dreamer, and bad liar, my artistic practice, which primarily focuses on 2D works—collages, drawings, and paintings—has long oscillated between video art and sculpture, with soft pastel now taking a prominent place. With a rather classical approach to still life, informed by literary, cinematic, and pictorial references, I attempt to probe the obscene. I create still lives and portraits inspired both by classical painting (Odilon Redon, Victor Brauner, Zurbarán) and endless Google searches. All of my artistic practice is nourished by in-depth historical, philosophical, and iconographical research on the themes and subjects I explore in my works. The study of Italian Grotesque style, postmodern dance, surrealism, and thaumaturgy (the magical ability to perform miracles) since 2017 has given my work a strong orientation toward an open-minded feminism, tinged with humour and deeply referenced. I mostly work during my sleep. Positioned within a post-surrealist discipline (apostate of Breton’s hierarchical and masculine dogma), I channel the hidden truths of my subconscious through dream journals, experimental drawing techniques, and by giving myself space to slow down, read, and connect ideas. The series “100 automatic drawings” produced in Mexico in 2019, drawings made with a ballpoint pen in a state of altered consciousness, reflects this release inspired by Henri Michaux. It is the grotesque and aggressive systems of domination that nourish my subjects, sometimes leading to a certain triviality in the representation. The soft pastel series “les Grosses Courges” (the Big Squashes), begun in 2024, surpasses the pure representation of the vegetal by exaggerating the raw relationship to human flesh to create a pseudo-erotic discomfort that grins on a fleshy, pigmented surface. Pastel is not masculine, it is evanescent, also vibrant, sensual, and raw: “the tactile value of color.” I work with my fingers, quickly. Subverting the sterile nature of the gallery with a good dose of irony, my work is highly referential and descriptive, transforming my reality into a sort of fantastical fairy tale full of irreverence. I do not see art as a commodity but as a vector of sensations, positioning me against the current of a consumerist dynamic, a point of friction between my work and the contemporary challenges of the world. Currently searching for eco-friendly materials and gestures, I am aiming toward a more responsible economy. Indeed, in addition to using pastels made from kaolin and pure pigments, I develop supports made of wood, linen, and cork powder. My aspirations follow the societal movements of my time, and so do my subjects, as I draw from the current darkness and bring them closer to the extraordinary.
