#manga sculpture

nucleaire — “Nucléaire”: gold leaf and automobile paint on resin 10 x 10 x 13cm (each)

These will be available at the Luxembourg Art Fair. With Range Of Arts gallery…

It’s been a hell of a year, 2016.

These eyes are the result of 18 months of planning, sketching, trying, failing, sculpting, and destroying . I wanted to break away from my painting. To make something completely new.

Finally I have something satisfactory. But best of all I know where I am going with the series.

The planet’s events in the past 18 months have struck me emotionally. I was supposed to be at dinner over by the Bataclan on Nov 13th. Brexit was a big blow. Then, on July 14th, at the last minute, we decided to not go to the Nice fireworks. It was our first day of vacation. At the end of August I walked right next to the car bomb that did not explode or rue de Buci, close to Notre Dame. Then there was the US elections that traumatized and divided my homeland. These manga eye sculptures are my reaction.

A special thanks to my gallerist, Oscar Seran, for his support.

Tomorrow in Honfleur at the Villa Domuse is the Nuit des Artistes. I’m presenting my Arcange Eyes.

I’ve been working on this for a year. Most of the work was thinking. My gallerist asked me to paint on sculptures like my Tigre Blue. The tigers weren’t available. Those were a limited edition made for the Amneville zoo to raise funds in order to save tigers in the wild.

I searched on the web for resin sculptures. Lots of penguins and crocodiles and bulldogs and… Mannequins were a possibility, then resin replicas of classical sculptures. But I wanted some form of my own creation. For months nothing came to mind. Then I had a dream after a stressful event. The nazar eye appeared in my dream. And the Arcange Eyes were born. It took me 8 months to create the left eye. I had to think some more. Each eye is 40 cm wide. The pair is perfect for your fireplace and if you tire of the eyes you can turn them around.

The mangas are Pichi Pichi Pitch.