Category Archives: Toulouse

Studio Visit: Geb Le Maudit

November 1, 2020 butterfly

Geb Le Maudit (translated as Geb the Cursed) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toulouse. Coming from a graffiti background, he expanded progressively to tattoo and dark arts. Inspired by the esthetism of funeral art, dark romantism or illustrations by Gustave Dore, Geb Le Maudit impressively mixes dark macabre elements which repel and at the same time entice the observer.

Stepping inside his studio, you are greeted by a Grim Reaper on the wall and surrounded with a cabinet of curiosities featuring vanitas, taxidermy animals like a stuffed sparrow and other religious symbols and iconography.

A master of tenebrism, also called chiaroscuro, Geb Le Maudit shows an incredible ability to paint light while using only shades of grey and black with blue to brown nuances.

His characters are depicted within a fog, an eerie scenery, often ornated with poppies, symbol of eternal sleep.

For the Belgian Metal Band Amenra, the prolific artist designed a limited version of the cover artwork.

Juxtaposing symbols from religious beliefs and folklore, Geb also paints on found human bones and sculpts its bespoke frames to create surrealist dark artworks both evocative and timeless. Symbols are in effect, the mediator, presence, and real (or intelligible) representation of the holy in certain conventional forms.

Geb Le Maudit’s creations are both hypnotic and riveting. They tap into an inner consciousness and push us to examine our feelings and relationship with death and the inbetween worlds, the transition or the ‘passage’, hence the presence of psychopomps through various forms.

Find out more on https://www.instagram.com/geb_lemaudit/

Pictures @butterflyartnews and courtesy of the artist

Festival, Museum, Toulouse

Toulouse: Rose Beton Biennale Part II

October 16, 2019 butterfly

We continue our coverage of the Rose Beton Biennale in Toulouse ( check our previous report here). In parallel to the open air gallery, with street walls being painted throughout the city, the Museum of contemporary art, Les Abattoirs is hosting an exhibition featuring three international artists: Tania Mouraud, Todd James and Cleon Peterson.

Patron of the Biennale, Tania Mouraud (b.1942) is a French multidisciplinary artist whose practice has been deployed since the late 1960s through paintings, installations, performances and videos. Her distinctive calligraphic style is highlighted by seven kakemonos from the series Mots-Mêlés surrounded by a large mural ‘Only the sound remains’, playing between letters, barcodes and graphic design.

Los Angeles based artist Cleon Peterson (b. 1973) painted a monumental and dystopic mural. Using a restricted colour palette, Cleon Peterson depicts a violent and chaotic world, inspired by mythological tales, historical facts as well as the current reality of our world.

New York based graffiti artist Todd James (b. 1969) showcases a series of fierce and acidulous paintings. Inspired by pop culture and action painting, his sexy curvaceous blonde character is playful, and grin in the face of machines and destruction.

Pictures by Prune Mahe for Butterfly Art News

Rose Beton – Les Abattoirs
Until 5 January 2020
Toulouse

streets, Toulouse

Toulouse: Rose Beton Biennale 2019

August 30, 2019 butterfly 1 Comment

MOMO

The third edition of The ROSE BETON FESTIVAL becomes a biennale dedicated to urban practices and cultures in Toulouse. National and international artists continue to invade the Pink City walls and cultural venues.

Back in 2016 legendary graffiti artist FUTURA painted a train carriage in the courtyard of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Toulouse, Les Abattoirs ( see our coverage here ).

The 2019 edition, co-curated by TILT and Nicolas Couturieux, pursues the expansion of the ‘open air gallery’ with outside walls painted by RERO , MOMO, JEROEN EROSIE, MADEMOISELLE KAT, MOSES AND TAP, HENSE as well as installations by MARK JENKINS.

HENSE

EROSIE

RERO

Mademoiselle Kat

Installation by Mark Jenkins © Benjamin Roudet

The second part of the Rose Beton Biennale will kick start on 26 September with an exhibition featuring works and installations from TANIA MOURAUD, TODD JAMES and CLEON PETERSON inside The Abattoirs, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Tania Mouraud Guest of honour of the Rose Beton Biennale

Cleon Peterson

Todd James

Many events, mediation, tours, workshops, and conferences are scheduled throughout the Rose Beton Biennale. For full programme, please visit the website

Photos © Butterfly Art News unless otherwise stated

ROSE BETON BIENNALE
26 September 2019 – January 5, 2020
Les Abbatoirs
76 allées Charles-de-Fitte
31300 Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse: 100TAUR Massive Mural

February 20, 2018 butterfly

French artist 100TAUR just completed the largest mural in Toulouse, after a continuous five weeks under extreme weather conditions.

Located in the district of Minimes, the 400 sq meters mural has been commissioned by the Mairie de Toulouse, visible at the rue des Anges.

The mural features strange creatures and hybrid monsters, mythological references, and popular imagery, sometimes borrowed from pop-culture like Sponge Bob or Popeye but also from illustrious painters like Jheronimus Bosch and Picasso.

The artist ‘s signature animal, the slug, symbol of resilience, plays also a big part in the narration with multiple appearances. The painted wall is also adorned with 3D elements giving it more dimensions.

View the full set of pics here

Toulouse

Toulouse: ICAREX-1 at the Chapelle des Carmelites

February 8, 2018 butterfly

The Mairie de Toulouse and the Centre d’Art Nomade are currently presenting a monumental installation ICAREX-1 by an elusive anonymous artist at the Chapelle des Carmelites until 25 February 2018.

We were lucky to get immersed in the creative process of this secretive artist and followed through the six months building of the installation.

The challenge is to face mystery. In an era where everything is shown, detailed, revealed, the artist protects his anonymity and disappears behind his artistic creations. Always on the move and in search of absolute freedom, the artist remains voluntarily invisible and frees himself from society by changing his identity according to his artistic interventions, but leaves a sign < + + .

Prolific and multidisciplinary, the artist has invaded territories for more than 25 years through different forms and has been playing on several dimensions: the visible and the invisible, the exploration of the light and the darkness, the urban environment, the unauthorised and the institutional, the real and the virtual.

A real master of camouflage, the artist has been secretly pursuing his invasions following a precise satellite cartography: urban territories, institutions, road and motorway network, wind farms, Landart installations on land and water … These ‘Attacks’ are never the result of chance, but instead carefully chosen in a specific timed location, whether in Toulouse (known as the City of Space), Paris, Lichtenstein, Spain, Italy, Kabul , Jerusalem or virtual galaxies.

His totems of light, peaceful entities with stylized geometric forms, mythical beings of another dimension push the public to wonder, get curious, but also to start a treasure hunt to meet them. The public must look for clues, interact with others to find more information, decipher these riddles or simply open the door of the imagination and appreciate the present moment.

A politically engaged artist, his artistic creations also deal with war conflicts, as well as human migration and refugees, such as the collective exhibitions ‘Creve Hivernale’ he curated in Toulouse (covered here) on the emergency situation of refugees coming to Europe.

The historical monument of la Chapelle des Carmelites became an obvious location choice for the installation because of its intimist dimension.

With ICAREX-1 ,the artist intervenes in echo with the environment: a monumental gilded metal arch mirrors the shape of the golden curved frame of the Annunciation painting, while the vertical golden gates remind of the golden columns of the Chapel.

A mirrored totem floating at nine meters high drops his skin leaving ashes on the floor.

ICAREX-1 is a reference to pride, the strength and weakness of the human being, the insatiable need to go elsewhere, see otherwise, to go beyond ones current capabilities, to adapt to territories. Through the play of mirrors, the human being is confronted to himself.

The artist thereby continues his work on duality: life / death, the visible / the invisible, light / darkness, the heavenly side / the earthly side.

The chrysalis of latex evokes the process of inner metamorphosis necessary to surpass oneself. It is the death of the ego for a rebirth. The human being tends to go forward to the light, but often makes the mistake of clinging to what he already knows. Yet we must face our fears and go beyond the unknown to find the freedom to create our own life.

The presence of a special warning light that illuminates the installation evokes the urgency of life, the rhythm of life, such as the one from the firefighters on alert to save lives.

The mirrored totem seems to float in the air at nine meters high within open golden gates, like a passage to another universe.

The ICAREX-1 installation specially designed for the Chapelle des Carmelites subtly blends technical prowess and visual poetry. A pure moment of magic and wonder that the artist keeps secret.

Special Thanks to Francoise, Elodie, Sandra, Gat’s, Vince, Hugo, Michel, Manuel, Anne and the Chapell team, the climbing men and all the support team that made this happen.