Zoé de Soumagnat

In the work of Zoé de Soumagnat, these two dimensions – society against intimacy, lightness against texture, figure against background – come together to represent the heterogeneous complexity of a desire passing in a continuous rhythm from image to sculpture, from dream to reality. Here geometric abstraction slides menacingly towards representation; light textures (rubbed, brushed, transparent) penetrate deep blacks while overlaid images float like screens across the canvas, souvenirs of art and painting. Meanwhile the references to comic-book lines, to the urban strokes of neon signs, to the flatness of textile motifs and to feminine archetypes become channels for a seriousness, an anguish and a black irony. - Esther Girard, 2015