en france
The CCC presents the new solo exhibition of Stéphane Calais. Considered one of the important French artists of his generation, Stéphane Calais has multiplied in recent years many projects in France and abroad, in the gallery or as part of private commissions such as the monumental murals made in 2012 for the Havas Tower. «en France» is the first solo exhibition dedicated to him since 2008 in a French institution.
This is an opportunity for the artist to focus on one of the many aspects of his practice: the exhibition is indeed exclusively devoted to painting. It brings together a set of recent or unpublished paintings and several large murals. Exploring the possibilities of this medium, Stéphane Calais plays with the diversity of formats and materials, giving equal importance to paper and mural works, using thick frames, small canvases bought in bazaars or canvases-thick objects.
Multiple in its references, its styles and its chromatic universes, the hybrid painting of Stéphane Calais integrates at the same time the codes of the decorative, the abstraction and the representation. An ambiguity echoed by the only figures in the exhibition: masks. Like the decor, they are surfaces applied to others, concealing while showing themselves with evidence.
The choice of a painting exhibition, in two dimensions, can have a singular character for those who know the protean work of Stéphane Calais. Until now, drawing has always been claimed by the artist as his first language, at the base of all others. The exhibition proposed to the CCC takes stock of the specificity and development of his pictorial practice, which may now have a new form of freedom and autonomy.
Excerpt from Press Release – 2013
stéphane calais
Born in 1967, Arras. He lives and works in Paris.
Stéphane Calais resorts to drawing, screen printing, sculpture or installation. By mixing different mediums, he circulates freely in the history of arts, borrowing ideas and references from different artistics fields, from great art to cartoons. Heterogeneity has played a fundamental role in his work from the start of his career; the artist’s positioning offers him multiple points of view, which allows him to depict reality at all levels, and from which he wants to explore all the layers.
Although the artist has claimed painting as his first language, he presented at the CCC an exhibition that reviews the specific nature and development of his pictural work. Multiplying references, styles, and chromatic universes, Stéphane Calais’ hybrid style integrates decorative, abstraction, and representation codes.
From the “En France”exhibition press release (2014).
The CCC presents the new solo exhibition of Stéphane Calais. Considered one of the important French artists of his generation, Stéphane Calais has multiplied in recent years many projects in France and abroad, in the gallery or as part of private commissions such as the monumental murals made in 2012 for the Havas Tower. «en France» is the first solo exhibition dedicated to him since 2008 in a French institution.
This is an opportunity for the artist to focus on one of the many aspects of his practice: the exhibition is indeed exclusively devoted to painting. It brings together a set of recent or unpublished paintings and several large murals. Exploring the possibilities of this medium, Stéphane Calais plays with the diversity of formats and materials, giving equal importance to paper and mural works, using thick frames, small canvases bought in bazaars or canvases-thick objects.
Multiple in its references, its styles and its chromatic universes, the hybrid painting of Stéphane Calais integrates at the same time the codes of the decorative, the abstraction and the representation. An ambiguity echoed by the only figures in the exhibition: masks. Like the decor, they are surfaces applied to others, concealing while showing themselves with evidence.
The choice of a painting exhibition, in two dimensions, can have a singular character for those who know the protean work of Stéphane Calais. Until now, drawing has always been claimed by the artist as his first language, at the base of all others. The exhibition proposed to the CCC takes stock of the specificity and development of his pictorial practice, which may now have a new form of freedom and autonomy.
Excerpt from Press Release – 2013
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