exhibition RAYMOND MÉDÉLICE GREAT DREAMING MACHINES

Raymond Médélice’s paintings, while they are often enigmatic, always contain a story — or even more than a story, they offer a reflection on life. Because his paintings function like the pages of a diary, where his concerns and thoughts, his vision of the world, are expressed. And yet there is something elusive in them, as the artist develops unexpected connections. Deciphering them becomes one of the pleasures of a visit to his exhibition.

“They are, after all, only little paintings on canvas — but they are in fact petrified dreams that are to be regarded as formidable dreaming machines,” Médélice says.

Add to the charm of reverie, exposure to an original pictorial technique that is entirely personal to the artist. Using a special tool he designed and produced himself, a sort of comb, he scrapes through successive layers of still-wet pigments in search of a particular background vibration. Engraved swirls and volutes animate the surface of the painting with a seemingly virtual movement.

The combination of graphic design and painting, as well as the insertion of writing into his work, remain two constants of the singular, astonishing, inimitable artistic approach of Raymond Médélice.

— Dominique Brebion