View of the exhibition Voyages sur le motif – Part II at Villa Navara, Le Muy, France. Photo : Loic Thébaud. © Renk
RenkVoyages sur le motif – Part II
03.07 – 15.09.2023
Villa Navarra
Following the exhibition in Paris, Galerie Enrico Navarra presents at Villa Navarra the continuation of the series Voyages sur le motif by artist Renk, by appointment only. Painted in seven places from 2020 to 2022, the last eleven canvases in the series will be displayed all summer long in this space designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti. The exhibition also reveals all the stages of their creation through videos.
Views of the exhibition Voyages sur le motif – Part II at Villa Navara, Le Muy, France. Photo : Loic Thébaud. © Renk
Born Walig Nicolet in Rennes in 1987, he started tagging in 2000 with the blaze 100REMOR after seeing a TV report about graffiti. A few years later, he met several taggers and graffiti enthusiasts during his training in communication in Bagnolet. He then changed his name to Renkar, before choosing Renk in 2007, which becomes his artist name. In 2011, after a revelation during a trip to the Sinai desert in Egypt, Renk fully dedicates himself to paintings on canvas. “One evening, while watching the sunset, Walig has an epiphanic moment. The sky and the colours seemed to speak to him. The message was clear and concise: ‘painting will be your whole life’. (David Rosenberg, Renk, Éditions Skira, 2021)
Portrait of Renk, Le Muy, France, 2023. Photo : Loic Thébaud.
Jardin, Île Vierge, Crozon, octobre 2022 (soir), 2022. Photo : Loic Thébaud. © Renk
Started in Paris, the series Voyages sur le Motif is mostly the result of several stays in Brittany. Each canvas was painted in front of nature, facing the sky, and bears the name of its place of creation: Champ de Mars, Dinard, Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, Île-de- Bréhat, Crozon, Île Bruc, Belle-Île… Renk follows the path of the impressionists and, as they did, carries his equipment to paint outdoors, without prior sketch. He paints “sur le motif”, “on the spot”.
Self-taught artist, he uses spray paint to represent skies in which the colors fade to reveal the harmony. The sky is at the center of his search, not for its picturesque effect but to illustrate, with spontaneity, the variations of colors, shadows and lights. These works are an accumulation of his tag “Renk”, in different sizes and colors, endlessly repeated until it disappears.
SELECTION OF EXHIBITED ARTWORKS
