Exhibition

By appropriating techniques from industry and craft, Clarence Guéna questions painting through its history and its archetypal representations.

Like palimpsests, the fabric of her paintings is made up of a succession of canvases found at flea markets. These women's books reproduce universally famous paintings, from Fragonard to Bernard Buffet, revised and corrected through the prism of so-called popular culture.

The support is then entirely coated with resin, giving it the appearance of a refined material.

Then the artist, taking on the role of archaeologist, digs into the thickness of the painting with a milling machine, bringing out bits and pieces of the canvas. This industrial tool seems to give off an apparent spontaneity, and the paradox between the lightness of the final gesture and the heaviness of the means used gives the finished work the breath and energy of the masters of calligraphy.