New solo with Ma Desheng (ink on paper, acrylic on canvas, drawing and sculpture

GRANDE SUITE Solo exhibition with MA DESHENG (Ink, acrylic, sculpture and drawing) 7 September 2024 -22 January 2025 The gallery is proud to present GRANDE SUITE, a solo exhibition dedicated to the work of Ma Desheng, a Chinese artist in exile, now based in Paris. This world-renowned artist, whose works are included in some of the world’s greatest collections and museums, is presenting a retrospective of his major works. This exhibition explores his unique use of ink, his mastery of colour and his powerful sculpture, three mediums that weave a dialogue between body and spirit, individual and community, East and West. Ma Desheng, a leading figure in the Chinese avant-garde, has established himself as an artist who is both poet and activist, driven by a tireless quest for freedom and expression. Born in 1952 in Beijing, in 1979 he founded the group ‘The Stars’ (Xingxing), an emblematic movement of the Chinese avant-garde, which defied official realism in favour of free, intuitive creation. He moved to Paris in 1986, where he developed a distinctive style combining Asian and Western influences. The exhibition presents the inks for which Ma Desheng is renowned. These works, pure and powerful, pay homage to the vital energy that emanates from nature and the human body. Her lines are both fine and intense, conveying the inner dynamics of her subjects. The recurring, magnified female figure embodies the artist’s sense of strength, resilience and fertility. Alongside his inks, his paintings intensify his exploration of colour and geometric shapes, offering a more abstract dimension, where every stroke and every nuance questions the relationship between space and movement. Here, the pictorial gesture becomes a meditation, an inner dance (‘Les roches qui dansent’, the name of a previous duet with LiFang), an echo of the tensions and aspirations that drive his art. Finally, the exhibition includes a selection of his sculptures, embodying a monumentality imbued with spirituality. These statues convey a quiet, almost sacred strength, massive human figures, solidly anchored, as if to assert their existence in the face of adversity and time. GRANDE SUITE is an invitation to delve into Ma Desheng’s world, which is both rooted in the traditions of Chinese art and open to a universal reflection on the human condition. His works are testimonies of resistance and passion, reflections of a humanity in search of meaning and freedom... ...