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Extracts from 2021 solo exhibition "Un Atelier", Galerie Leo Arte Paris:
For this 2021 fall season, following exhibitions featuring Georg Baselitz and Christo, the Leo Arte gallery is hosting Francois Weiss and his contemporary creations. Their precision and pure forms naturally blend into this beautiful space overlooking the Seine, from October 21st to December 11th, 2021.
Francois Weiss is a self-taught artist. He starts as a portrait photographer, soon after spending a few years drawing and creating sets for the Lanvin house on Rue St. Honoré. Working on his early portraits, he develops a passion for darkroom work and starts exploring the world, working and living in New York, London, Tokyo.
He soon opens a studio-gallery in the heart of Paris, near Place des Victoires, where he exhibits artists whose work he admires. He also collects and displays figurative and abstract paintings from the 20th century, for himself and his friends - soon to work on more significant projects. He has just finished curating the Art exhibited in Chateau Voltaire - a collaboration with Franck Durand and Studio Festen, in which more than fifty paintings are exhibited, mostly from the early 20th century.
Throughout all these years, Francois Weiss has never stopped working in his gallery - which gradually transforms into a workshop: Ceramics, stone, plaster, wood, and bronze, exploring each prctice little by little. Regardless of the material he works with and using simple tools, his technique remains the same, the visual signature is identical - bold, with architectural elements that structure the whole.
The hand traces sharp outlines and clean lines. The materials are raw, without glaze or varnish - Clay, stone, hard wood, marble, plaster of Paris - occasionally enriched by the deep black of India ink, much like in a beautiful piece by Soulages, which reigns over his workshop.
His inspiration comes from his passion for post-war art, deeply influenced by the Ancien World.
One thinks of Stonehenge, millennia-old mastabas, broken columns, and pagan altars.
His references get lost in the mists of time,
with the earliest creations of humanity and vanished civilizations.
Patrick Amine.
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