Beyond Reality: Painting: ROUGE HARTLEY, AXEL VOID, ANDREW HEM...

We often hear that over the centuries, contemporary painting has become a pure self-referential art form. But as far as we are concerned, we still consider painting the most vibrant and delicate medium, able to hit the viewer right in the heart and spark an emotional reaction. Painters offer us their vision of reality and/or a depiction of their imaginary world. Figuration immerses the viewer in forms and pigments, between depth and surface. Through this journey, we establish a privilege relationship with the work, and therefore, the artist.

Figuration is crucial to all the artists of Beyond Reality: Painting. It takes the form of self-portrait with Philippe Herard and his surreal alter ego looking for balance; or with the feminine figures of Miss Van, the muses of this artist obsessed with her creative gesture. Eric Lacan's portraits of women are metaphoric pretexts to explore contemporary vanitas. The brightly patterned masked portraits of Columbian artist Gleo draw on various cultural and mystical symbols, from vitality to wisdom. For the American artist of Spanish origins Axel Void, there is an encounter behind each work, and both topic and medium are treated with the same uncompromising approach. French artist Rouge Hartley also creates narrative oil paintings that capture intimacy with an amazing wealth of motifs. As for Andrew Hem, he takes us into his creative process, from a portrait of Claude Monet to studio views. Finally, the brothers Ratur and Sckaro play with bodies and gravity, deconstructing classical figuration to propose a more urban and contemporary vision.