Maxime Verdier

In Tout est flou ! Maxime Verdier evokes the way in which myopia has influenced his way of seeing the forms that surround him since his adolescence. Discovered late in life, this vision defect has led him to imagine the world differently. The artist enjoys juxtaposing autobiographical elements with strange forms in a chimerical landscape that unfolds on the space of the sheet.

Spotlight is about the possibilities of evoking things behind appearances, the "why not" of objects, beings and moments when they are subject only to the rules of the imagination. On the wall of a house, the shadow of a monstrous form is drawn while two fingers seem to be trapped under a shutter, suggesting a presence that observes the scene. His childhood in the countryside allowed Maxime Verdier to populate his mind with creatures and ghosts that he thought he perceived in the ceiling beams and the foliage of the trees.

Dans un esprit proche du surréalisme, Le Sentiment du Pissenlit, peinture acrylique sur bois réalisée spécialement pour les cinq ans de la galerie, s’offre aux spectateurs comme une énigme, un rébus à déchiffrer. Maxime Verdier invoque avec humour l’idée de la cinquième roue du carrosse en s’interrogeant sur la place à donner à l’inutile dans notre société actuelle. En effet, que se passe-t-il lorsque l’on décide de sortir de la finalité pratique ou profitable des choses qui nous entourent ? Lorsque l’on offre une chance à ce qui nous déplait, à ce qui est accessoire ou futile ? Peut-être que l’on ouvre alors une part de rêve, de nouveaux possibles, de nouvelles perspectives. Ce sentiment du pissenlit, c'est celui de la mauvaise herbe, celle qu'on arrache, qu'on jette alors qu'elle garde au fond d'elle-même de nombreuses vertus qui apparaissent lorsqu'on lui offre de l’attention.

Au fond du terrier is part of a series of models made of heterogeneous materials referring to real or fictitious places that cross the imagination and memories of Maxime Verdier. The work refers to Lewis Caroll's tale, Alice in Wonderland, and the burrow that Alice takes to enter a world where the rules governing space are upset. But the burrow is none other than the artist's former studio, embodying for him the place of all possibilities where reality is transformed by his thoughts and his hands. Taking the curtain that sheltered the neighboring studio and the exact measurements of the walls of the workroom, the artist transforms it into a mysterious space.

L'océan du possible is part of a series of models made of heterogeneous materials referring to real or fictitious places that cross the imagination and memories of Maxime Verdier. The work offers a contemporary version of the traditional genre of the Navy. In the form of a cocktail served in a coconut, the artist makes forms and materials collide to invent a space of freedom where play and dreams reign.

La fête est finie is part of a series of models composed of heterogeneous materials referring to real or fictitious places that cross the imagination and memories of Maxime Verdier. Here are mixed several elements from architectures inspired by the artist's daily life: the concrete of a high school courtyard, the tiles of public swimming pools, the bench of a secretarial waiting room, the gloomy colors of a village hall... With his back to the sky, a ghost, perhaps that of the artist, populates this non-place, concerned about having to choose a path to follow when leaving adolescence.

Incipit is part of a series of models composed of heterogeneous materials referring to real or fictitious places that cross the imagination and memories of Maxime Verdier. The work evokes the first words of a book that introduce the perspectives of a larger story. The artist immerses the spectators in his childhood memories of school: the beige plastered corridor leading to the classroom where coats were stored, the imposing door and the gigantic window that could not be opened. It was during this period that Maxime Verdier filled his imagination with stories, dreams and creatures that he translates today in his plastic work.

Les Garçons de l'aurore is part of a series of models made of heterogeneous materials referring to real or fictitious places that cross the imagination and memories of Maxime Verdier. In this sculpture, the artist pays homage to nighttime strolls with friends in the four corners of his native Normandy: its villages, its paths and its fields. The artist also continues his research on light, that of dawn here, where the vapors of the night and the glow of a new day intermingle in a certain nostalgia.

La lueur de l'air is part of a series of models made of heterogeneous materials that refer to real or fictitious places that cross the imagination and memories of Maxime Verdier.  The artist is inspired here by a trapdoor located in the cellar of the house in which he grew up. He imagines that he unlocks it to give the spectators access to the entrails of this house and his life where fiction and reality, dreams and nightmares mix. The title refers to the light of the night sky, propagated by the Earth's atmosphere and which prevents the night from being entirely black, illustrating the way the artist works and sees the world, in search of apparitions and forms hidden in the recesses of his memories.

In Hadal, Maxime Verdier delivers a hijacked version of the traditional nude of classical art. The skin of the character lying on the bed is none other than the sea, whose waves mingle with the folds of the sheets. The title of the work refers to the deepest ocean depths where total darkness and crushing pressure reign. It is a body fainted and transported to another place, ready to dive into the abyss of itself as if to travel beyond the trap door that opens the exhibition.

Le refuge is a reproduction of a photograph of a street lamp located in front of the house where Maxime Verdier grew up. In the dark night and on a deserted country road, the blazing light appears as a reassuring and warm lighthouse. The drawing is also the memory of a place where the artist liked to come and think, lying in the greasy grass at the foot of the lamp post.

Paradisier is an allegory of the head as a nest on which an egg stands ready to hatch before flying away to the expanse of the sky. The title refers to the Asian birds known for their fabulous plumage and their inventiveness in seduction parades. The artist assimilates the egg placed on his head to a plastic idea that would germinate and unfold on different supports and through various creative techniques.

Le silence des ados is a humorous reference to Thomas Harris' thriller, The Silence of the Lambs, and to the poster of its film adaptation that made the skull and crossbones butterfly species famous. In this drawing, Maxime Verdier evokes the relationship of teenagers to the adult world and questions the weight of rules and obligations. By replacing the butterfly's wings with a gesture of rebellion to the established order, the artist expresses the power of art to put back in place or on the contrary to disturb a univocal vision of the world.

Cosmic Dancer represents a character perched on stilts that serve as long views to explore the stratosphere. The title of the work is inspired by the most famous song of the rock band T.REX which marked the artist's adolescence and which he appropriates in his work. Maxime Verdier presents himself as an explorer traveling through unreal spaces. His plastic work allows him to extend his vision, to project himself beyond the limits.

Oeuvre intime et auto-référencée, Les éclats diurnes représente un dos constellé de taches de rousseur. Par l'utilisation de la couleur doré dans leur représentation, l'artiste fait de cette particularité un motif de sublimation du corps et non plus de stigmatisation, tout en lui insufflant une dimension surnaturelle.

Sous le vernis ravive une vision propre à l'enfance de l'artiste à la campagne: le petit garçon imaginait derrière les phénomènes acoustiques typiques des maisons anciennes une présence cachée. L'oeuvre joue ainsi sur la mince frontière entre l'imaginaire et le réel, l'inexistant et le non visible, ainsi qu'entre l'inquiétant et le fascinant.

La conquête des peines est une réflexion personnelle sur l'échec et la souffrance. Les épreuves, loin de susciter l'effondrement, deviennent ici la source d'un jardin luxuriant, comme une manière de figurer un épanouissement puisé dans le labeur et le dépassement de soi.