Until January 15, the Castang gallery in Perpignan is exhibiting the paintings of Chris Aerfeldt and the ceramics of Muriel Persil.
After the refined art of Pierre Riba and Piero Cipolat last November, gallery owner Roger Castang chose to present the work of two female artists who notably have a passion for color in common.
Chris Aerfeldt, of Australian origin, has lived and worked in Montpellier since 2009. A few weeks ago, she won the Public's Favorite Prize at the Artistes de France Occitanie competition, tied with Sétoise Johanne Cinier, an artist also accompanied by Roger Castang.
Like Johanne Cinier, Chris Aerfeldt’s approach is feminist… “but not only” nuance this one: “Several themes mix together. In fact, it's very personal. I grew up in a very strict family. When I was a child, I felt invisible, powerless. From the age of 12, painting allowed me to express myself”. In Perpignan, she presents paintings from two different series. In the first, she takes up famous works, in this case, The Rape of Europe et The birth of Venus by François Boucher, to revisit, with humor and relevance, the place of women both in mythology and in classical painting. And one patriarchy can hide another! “I reinvent History where, almost always, paintings of women are painted by men”, explains Chris Aerfeldt who, using dolls as models, offers us a Venus of Las Vegas uninhibited and Europe Who can't be impressed!
In the second series, a nod to the classic portrait… to free yourself from stereotypes. Another, more worrying atmosphere. In these images of the perfect woman, something does not add up. Icy beauty but a look of distrust, – let's dare say it's killer -, elegant sobriety but shocking colors, mothers… of cats and rabbits, sometimes bloody. Half Alice in Wonderland, half Hitchcockian. Chris Aerfeldt's women are definitely not those that standards impose. The artist gives these warriors the visibility that she herself so lacked.
The art of metamorphosis
The ceramist Muriel Persil, who lives in Perpignan, has a fascination for the living, a mixture of strength and fragility, and for the impermanence of things. His world is that of metamorphosis, of the passage from life to death… or the reverse. It materializes in multicolored organic forms, which seem to evolve visually: “coral” vases, hybrid creatures, sometimes merging the animal and the plant. Here, new imaginary flowers, with vertical lines. Nature is omnipresent in her work, including when she also revisits myths. This time, no Ophélie, no Daphné, but Lilith and the Serpent, crowned with foliage, The basket of temptations or The salamander skull.
Also on display are his first ceramics, white: soft porcelain face – observe the delicacy of the grain – busts of jellyfish in earthenware. “At first, I didn't dare to try color, I was afraid of missing everything”she remembers. Muriel Persil quickly changed her mind: “Today, for me, color is life, energy, exuberance. Whiteness tells of something else, more mortuary perhaps, an interiority.” Qualify your talent, the beauty of your work? We should invent a new superlative.
