Renk at île Bruc, Port Blanc, Bretagne, France, 2020. Photo : Rodolphe Darblay. © Renk
RenkVoyages sur le motif
27.01 – 07.04.2023
Galerie 75 Faubourg
Galerie 75 Faubourg collaborates with Galerie Enrico Navarra to present an exhibition of the artist Renk, showcasing a selection of his most recent works on canvas from the series Voyages sur le motif. Painted in seven places from 2020 to 2022, 13 of the 24 canvases are on view today at Galerie 75 Faubourg, and the last 11 canvases will be displayed at Villa Navarra (Le Muy, France) this summer. The exhibition also reveals all the stages of their creation through videos.
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.
Portrait of Renk, Paris, France, 2022. Photo : Rodolphe Darblay
Piscine de Dinard, Juillet 2021, 2021. Photo : Rodolphe Darblay. © 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.