All works at the single price of €70 at the exhibition of the Label Friche association in Nogent-le-Rotrou

This is the third year that the Label Friche association has offered local artists a small format exhibition at the end of the year. From Saturday until Sunday, December 15, the public will be able to discover the work of 21 painters, visual artists and sculptors who, the vast majority of them, worked expressly for this exhibition.

What is the new exhibition at the In Situ gallery in Nogent-le-Rotrou?

As Mélanie Casano recalled yesterday, “The imposed exercise lies in the fact that artists, with the exception of sculptors, must present works in the format of 20 cm by 20 cm.

Single price

The unique format also imposes a single selling price of €70 for each work. Which still makes works of art accessible which easily find a place as a gift under the Christmas tree.

Small formats are displayed in 4 x 3 at the In Situ gallery in Nogent-le-Rotrou

Photo, painting, drawing, print, paper, terracotta or mixed media, the supports and modes of expression are also varied. “And then, we are also satisfied to have been able to renew so many of our artists this year compared to the two previous editions,” also welcomed the organizers of the Label Friche association.

With Alice HervéComing from Le Mans (Sarthe), Alice Hervé exhibits for the first time at the In Situ gallery.

Having lived in Le Mans (Sarthe) for several years, it was in Nogent-le-Rotrou that the young artist cut her teeth in the visual arts classes at the Louis-Arsène-Meunier college then with those of Sylvie Mazereau at Rémi-Belleau high school. “I remember coming several times to the In Situ gallery for mediation sessions as well as working workshops with the artists who were invited by the Label Friche association,” she still remembers of a period which is ultimately only ten years old.

Having left for Le Mans to follow her courses at the Beaux-Arts, the young woman therefore set up there as an artist “but I am very happy to come and exhibit in Nogent and more particularly to return to this gallery where we exhibited our work for the baccalaureate when I was in my final year. But as an artist, this is his first real exhibition in the capital of Perche.

For this young painter who “works more on large formats, very large formats, even frescoes of 2 meters by 2 meters, the small formats of 20 cm by 20 cm imposed for this exhibition were a very interesting exercise”. It was even a “nice experience,” she assures us. For the work she presents for this exhibition, Alice Hervé draws a lot of inspiration from “scenes of everyday life”, whose chromatic range she pushes to the extreme. “It’s indeed very colorful,” she describes with a smile.

With Maria Collin

Maria Collin offers her countryside landscapes.

This is also the first time that Maria Collin has exhibited at the In Situ gallery in Nogent-le-Rotrou even though she has been linked to the Label Friche association for more than 20 years. “My very long adventure with Label Friche began in 2003 when the association was based in La Perrière (Editor's note: in Orne),” says the artist who put painting aside a little to devote himself to other passions.

“In fact, I moved to Perche in 2003, near Pouvrai, to plant trees, maintain an orchard and cultivate the vegetable garden. Over time, all this grew and today, I leave a good part of my fruit for the birds to eat, because I cannot consume it all,” she smiles.

In any case, it is for this reason that Maria Collin started painting again, particularly countryside landscapes, inspired by her travels. “I was a textile designer in my professional life and that allowed me to travel a lot. It was even necessary to exchange and draw from various sources of inspiration,” describes Maria Collin.

For the work she presents during this small-format exhibition, she explains: “My mode of expression has remained the same as that which I had when I designed textiles, that is to say I paint in a realistic way, but I know it’s not realistic at all,” she quips. The 20 cm by 20 cm canvases that she also created specially for this exhibition in countryside landscapes with rounded shapes and the soft colors of late summer.

Avec Bruno Robert

Based in Bretoncelles (Orne), Bruno Robert is an illustrator for children's publishing.

Illustrator of children's books, Bruno Robert works for various continental publishing houses, but also across the Channel. Based in Bretoncelles (Orne), “I already knew the Label Friche association and the In Situ gallery as a visitor and I came some time ago to offer my work for a one-month exhibition at the gallery”. No luck, the program of artists presented by Label Friche was already completed for the year 2025 “so, I was offered to participate in this exhibition in a small format, I immediately liked being able to show my work », Describes the painter.

After the audiences of Mortagne-au-Perche, Alençon and Bellême where he recently exhibited, this time it is the visitors of Perche Nogentais who will be able to discover his painting and thus get lost in the undergrowth and misty and often misty corners of forests. mysterious that he creates in acrylic.

It feels like a sunken path in Perche on a morning of autumnal mists… “Not at all, I probably draw some inspiration from it, but I paint totally imaginary landscapes,” assures Bruno Robert. And that is perhaps what gives them so much mystery. Each of the paintings that he presents in small format for this exhibition immerses the visitor in quite overwhelming atmospheres whose mystery we cannot really unravel.

Practical. “Small formats” exhibition at the In Situ gallery, 5 rue du Pâty, in Nogent-le-Rotrou. Open from November 30 to December 15, 2024, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. By appointment at 06.32.40.20.48 on other days. FREE ENTRANCE. Opening this Saturday, November 30 at 6 p.m.

Stéphane Marchand