Majo & Noelle & Quèvélo

trilogy of sens

The Messmer gallery presents with the three French artists Majo, Noelle and Quèvélo

three charismatic artists united by a love of nature and an intensive and passionate examination of its elements. Rock formations overgrown by moss and grass, trees and again and again paper as a natural product experience a deep, sometimes erotic sensuality in the works of all three artists, which allows the hidden forces with their metaphysical ideas of nature to be felt.

Nature and its underlying natural forces have been revered by humans since primeval times and associated with divine work. With its seasonal change, it is the epitome of the natural cycle of growth and decay. These notions flow into the art of Majo, Noelle, and Quèvélo to varying degrees.

The performance artist Noelle stages her own body in the context of nature. Painted and spattered with black, white and pink paint like graffiti, it takes on vegetative forms in its movements and gestures and thus blends harmoniously into the chosen natural space. “Destruction of myself” – this is how the artist herself describes this process, which she carries out like a ritual in the performance and which she documents with photographs. This title clarifies the basic idea of her performance: Man as an integral part of nature is completely absorbed in nature and cannot exist without it.

The abstract structures of her tall, rectangular steles made of wood and canvas resemble rugged rock formations and are imitations of the union of nature and man, as Noel celebrates it in her performance.

The tree plays a central role in Majo’s art. These notions become apparent when looking at the artist’s installations. These are partly space-filling environments in which Majo transforms branches up to 2 meters high into artistic trees. The bare, colored branches are sometimes populated with small human figures or decorated with other accessories and are accompanied by picture panels or everyday objects. In this way, she creates a microcosm whose sensuality evokes the often psychedelic and thus mind-expanding figurations of the 1970s. Here the artist crosses the border to a supernatural dimension, in which religion itself may also play a role. At least her latest work, the sculpture of a human figure carved from the pages of an old Bible, becomes understandable in this context. For example, passages from the Psalms can be read on the surface of the figure. Just as God created Adam from the earth, the paper made from trees is the matter from which the sculpture is made.

For the third artist Quèvélo, too, paper as a natural product is the raw material from which the artist creates the work. From a mixture of acrylic and recycled paper, she forms her figures with great attention to detail, which she laminates onto the canvas like a sculpture. Quèvélo wants to make the paper speak with her subjects, which sometimes come from a spiritual sphere, like the young woman with butterfly wings, or are humorous like the well-known obelisk from the cult comic. The harmony of movement in her figures sensitively traces an unadulterated picture of their souls and thus inspires the viewer’s imagination. The artist will give an insight into her artistic method at the vernissage and will create one of her figures coram publico this morning.

Interested in more works?

Contact us. We will find the right one for you!