Gabrielle Grawey has the ability to capture the sun and the heat of the tropics through monochrome images, composed from paintings created beforehand. It plays on the values ​​of black, white and intermediate grays. They look like photos that have been processed to make them more expressive. A variation on the trompe-l'oeil, as well as a whole feat. The thick lines, the black masses, unfold and resume in decorative patterns, but also in images of psychic depth. This ambiguity is not devoid of interest, as it contributes to the tension that creates the appeal of a work of art. I perceive her compositions in the wake of the New York New Image, and I advance this interpretation in a very general way.

Gabrielle Grawey can affirm with Henri Michaux: “Me too, one day, an idea came to me to draw, to participate in the world through lines. Grawey has traveled extensively. Its shapes spring from within, from the unconscious, connected to a kind of primal energy that links them to the emotion of the first cultures. I note the conciseness of the images, which say a lot for who wants to see and feel them. She allows visions to arise that discreetly draw on the personal and collective unconscious. For Carl Gustav Jung, the symbol equals the archetype plus the charge of psychic energy. Grawey's work is also an exploration of symbols. In a mode that emphasizes the “globalized” technological consensus, Grawey presents her subjectivity to us - an important position - and awakens ours. Essential work today.

André Seleanu (AICA)

Commissaire de l’exposition