Solitudes - In Alto Colori

Galerie Ketabi Bourdet is delighted to present SOLITUDES, Julien Saudubray’s second exhibition at the gallery. His works will be exhibited alongside the unique series of vases In Alto Colori, conceived by the designer/ceramicist duo Maxime Louis-Courcier and Camille Romagnani

Galerie Ketabi Bourdet is pleased to present SOLITUDES, Julien Saudubray’s second exhibition at the gallery. His work will be exhibited alongside the In Alto Colori series of unique vases, designed by designer/ceramist duo Maxime Louis- Courcier and Camille Romagnani.

The paintings in the SOLITUDES series were inspired by a charity auction in which the artist was participating. The imposed format (24 x 18 cm) offered Saudubray the opportunity to find a use for the remnants of his canvas rolls, the excess strips and residues of his creative process. These fragments of canvas, imbued with the energy of works in progress, became what the artist calls “blind paintings”, where traces and sunken images are superimposed.

The artist then stretches these fragments onto plates of the same size, preparing them to become the next works to come. Each of these small paintings is intimately linked to the others, thanks to the uniform format that gives the series visual coherence. Sometimes, the image emerges almost without intervention, following Leonardo da Vinci’s advice to his students to discover figures in natural textures. Accident is an essential part of this creative process, as each canvas is manipulated in different directions until a new point of departure emerges. Thus, this series, born of a series of accidents, becomes a kind of nomenclature of painting, where each work, while autonomous, carries within it the energy of the others.

The title SOLITUDES evokes the idea of the memorial fragments that make up this series: each painting stands alone, but the plural of the title underlines the interconnection and mutual support between the works.

The exhibition will feature an ensemble alternating works by Julien Saudubray with the In Alto Colori vases. Designed by Maxime Louis-Courcier, these vases are then colored by Camille Romagnani’s enamel work. The pigments, applied with a brush, blend and overlap, revealing their full expression during firing. The vase thus becomes a work of art in its own right, rising up like a wall excrescence offering new perspectives.

Last but not least, a wall painting by Julien Saudubray will cover part of the gallery, freeing the painting from its traditional frame to stand alone, with no time or space limits.

Julien Saudubray, born in Paris in 1985, is a French artist who lives and works in Belgium.
He graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris in 2012, and has since enjoyed solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the United States. He has completed residencies at the CAB Foundation and the Boghossian Foundation, both in Brussels, and at PASSAGE in Bergerac. He was awarded the Watch This Space biennial prize by 50° Nord in 2016 and the Prix Médiatine by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles in 2020.
Saudubray’s decade-long career began with painting, but he soon ventured into other visual disciplines, including installation and performance. Only recently has he returned to oil and brush, feeling inspired to formulate a new visual language by experimenting with alchemy and intuitive gestures. By liberating formal constraints and stripping painting of its purest, most austere forms, he allows his canvases of undulating shapes and warm, vivid colors to come to life.

Camille Romagnani is an artist of French and Chinese origin, born in 1992. She graduated in 2018 from ENSCI Les Ateliers in Textile Design, and in 2013 from ENSAAMA Oliviers de Serre in Product Design.
She went on to develop a personal universe working between art and craft.Her practice explores natural elements, working with materials, colors and making. Primarily focused on ceramics, it can also take the form of books, photography, drawing, woodwork or beeswax... After living in Athens, where she discovered ceramics, she set up her workshop in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.

Maxime Louis-Courcier is an artist and designer based in Paris. His artistic approach is rooted in the issues of obsolescence, excessive technicality and over-consumption, while seeking to provide new responses to contemporary ecological challenges. “Matières Spécifiques”, his industrial designer diploma project from ENSCI les ateliers, illustrates this approach and was awarded a Red Dot Best of the Best and a Special Mention at Villa Noailles in 2019.

His work straddles the boundary between industry and craft. With the Glass 90° series (2020-2023), exhibited in Paris and Berlin, and the In Alto wall vase in 2024, he fuses the formal freedom of 3D printing with the traditional skills of ceramic molding and glass assembly. He also collaborates on the creation of exceptional bottles for the Martell brand. From glass to ceramics to goldsmithing, the artist and designer creates a body of work aimed at reinventing everyday objects. His narrative approach explores a new formal language, combining purity and complexity of design.

Press contact : Melissa Balkin / contact@balkinbureau.com