Like a writer journaling their thoughts, Inès Longevial is constantly doodling across Post-it notes and cafe napkins. The French painter is known for her intimate self-portraiture that veers in the realm of abstraction in the way she projects feelings and emotions on the skin through color. Born in the South of France and now based in Paris, Longevial has unveiled a new exhibition at Almine Rech in Shanghai.
As her first show in Mainland China, Les Silences du Désir (The Silences of Desire) comprises of a series of new paintings and works on paper that celebrate the female form and the ephemerality of emotion she experiences from season to season. “Inès Longevial gives life to a giant,” wrote curator Elise Roche, “a brute yet fragile force, evoking a repressed desire that is expressed through every stroke of paint.”
Standouts on view include Frise de profils (2024), where Longevial created a series of faces descending in mood and color with oil stick on paper. These smaller works give way to much larger compositions, such as Fleurs du ciel (2024) and Fleurs qui tombent (2024), the colors and floral motifs hinting at the transition from winter to spring.
Also on view are eight smaller napkin studies that serve as totems of Longevial’s creative process. “I solve issues at the same time that I paint,” the artist previously stated. “I could even say that I live each painting as an experience of love. This includes: desire and thwarted desire, similar to a sudden obsession.”
Les Silences du Désir (The Silences of Desire) will be on view in Shanghai until July 6, 2024.
Almine Rech
Huqiu 27, 2层27 Huqiu Rd, 27,
Huangpu, Shanghai, China, 200002
