Maxime Drouet: En quête

While his whole cars represent the foundation of a broader conceptual art practice, the Parisian artist immerses the viewer in the exhibition space, between light and dark, inside and outside, from one side of the train window to the other. The artist's action is only a trace and the work becomes abstraction.

In April 2019, the Chenus Longhi Gallery presented a spectacular installation by Maxime Drouet at the Urban Art Fair: “Midnight Express“ reconstituted a train carriage plunging visitors into darkness amidst paintings on backlit train windows. This second exhibition at Galerie Chenus Longhi, “En quête“, is part of this continuity. The title of the exhibition evokes, in a play on words, the judicial past of the former vandal, while pointing to the notion of research inherent in all artistic work. Active in graffiti since 2000, Maxime Drouet is considered as an emerging artist, still in search of himself and of different modes of expression that shed light on his reflection on graffiti on trains and the relationship with others. It is also a permanent quest for the last grey trains existing in France (in disused train depots), his favourite supports that host his work, with an unconcealed nostalgia. The exhibition thus proposes a dozen paintings on backlit train windows and doors and photographs in light boxes.