Structures d’apparaître

Galerie Gilla Loercher is delighted to present the solo show "Structures d´apparaître" by French artist Sandrine Maheo.
The opening is on 29 November 2024 at 18:00.

Discovering the work of French artist Sandrine Mahéo (born 1974) means “immersing oneself in a wealth of colors that constantly raises questions and subtly reveals the question of form in painting on several aesthetic levels (...) without necessarily questioning the canvas as such, without necessarily negating the gesture and without making it the be-all and end-all of painting.” Looking for historical “resonances, the closest connection is to be seen in the American Color Field movement, whose spiritualist, contemplative and purely formalist inspiration reached its peak in the 1960s. (...) And so Maheo immerses us in large pieces detached from a fresco, as it were, here a fragment of Tiepolo's sky, there a piece of gray wall, which on closer inspection turn out to be a network of micro-spots or finely speckled colors.” Text: Jean-Francois Desserre

The expression “Structures of Appearance”, which the artist uses as the exhibition title, was so appealing to Sandrine Mahéo because in her artistic practice she explores and focuses on the question of the production of form and its infinite variations.
Commenting on the large-format and diffuse-looking painting in the exhibition, the artist explains: “In this painting, I have tried to create an immersive space that has a certain depth in some places, through areas of color without defined contours, without perspective of course, but also without contrasts (light/dark). It is a delicate painting that became very intuitive in the course of the painting process. When you immerse yourself in colors that are basically similar, you feel more than you see.”

Sandrine Mahéo does not generally work in series. She sees her works “more like a network or a constellation with connections between the paintings and their recurring themes. Viewers are invited to adopt an active attitude and to trace and create the connections between the pictures themselves.

Sandrine Mahéo (born 1974) holds a National Diploma of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts, Montpellier (France). Her work has been shown in art institutions and galleries such as: Galerie Bernard Jordan, Paris; Carré Saint-Anne, Montpellier; Art Center Vallon du Villaret, Bagnol-les-Bains a.o.