Atelier le Grand Village lithographs and weavings
30/03/2019 - 10/06/2019An exhibition of artists in dialogue
In the middle of the Charente Limousine countryside, two passionate artists have set up their workshops. The exhibition offers a dialogue between the lithographic works created by Francis van der Riet and international artists at Atelier le Grand Village and the textile designs of Côme Touvay.
Francis van der Riet, a master printer, founded Atelier le Grand Village which gradually became an ideal workshop, combining presses and state-of-the-art tools. He invites artists in residence to the studio to produce lithographic prints. The exhibition presents an overview of the lithographic works created at Atelier le Grand Village over the past ten years by international artists such as :
Diane Victor (South Africa)
Diane Victor lives in Gouteng, South Africa. In 1988, she was awarded the prestigious “ABSA Atelier” prize and became one of South Africa’s most respected artists. His work is in numerous private and public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. Her contribution to the art of stampmaking in South Africa is immense and she teaches it in several fine arts schools.
NINA Kovacheva (Bulgaria)
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, NINA lives and works in Paris. She is the winner of several international prizes, including the 2002 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (with Valentin Stefanoff). She exhibits her works in France, the United States, China, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. His works are present in several important collections: the Esterhazy Collection, the European Bank, the National Women’s Museum in Washington, the National Library of France, the National Art Gallery in Sofia… NINA Kovacheva is a versatile artist. She draws on the resources of video, photography and drawing, among others. NINA shows a constant interest in the body as an evasive object and its conflicting aspects: men and women, nature and culture, life and death.
Valentin Stefanoff (Bulgaria)
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Valentin lives and works in Paris. He is the winner of several international prizes, including the 2002 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (with NINA Kovacheva). Valentin exhibits his works in France, the United States, China, Austria and Bulgaria. His works are present in several important collections: the European Bank, the MoCA in Taipei, the Horsecross Collection in the United Kingdom, the Museum for the “New Arts” in Detroit, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Galerie d’Art Nationale in Sofia.
Michael Barnes (United-States)
Michael Barnes, American artist, lives in Illinois where he studied at the Beaux-Arts. Professor at the University of Illinois, he has been teaching Printmaking since 1998. He participates in the juries of international print competitions. His works are part of several important collections in the United States, France, Belgium, Finland and Estonia. His art is conceived as a social and political critique, associating objects that surround him with imaginary characters. In the lithographs made at the Atelier le Grand Village, we find objects found in the garden and the workshop of the place called “le Grand Village”.
Aaron Coleman (United-States)
American artist, Aaron Coleman lives in Arizona. He studied at the Fine Arts School in Illinois. Professor at the University of Arizona, he teaches Printmaking. His artistic work uses stampmaking in all its forms and deals with socio-political themes. He combines comic book images and stained glass windows with hip-hop influences to challenge our beliefs and moral values. His works are part of several important collections in the United States, France, Russia and Japan.
Bambo Sibiya (South Africa)
Bambo is a South African artist from Kwa Thema, Springs near Johannesburg. He studied art at Benoni Technical College. He then trained in the art of stamp-making at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg. Winner of the Gerard Sekoto Prize, he received a residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris. He then met Francis van der Riet and began to study lithography. The origin of the “Swenkas” dates back to the apartheid era: workers who were looking for work in big cities wanted to impress their families and neighbours by dressing in beautiful costumes and behaving with good manners when they returned home. They met to organize style contests. Swenkas follow rules such as cleanliness, sobriety and above all self-respect.
Mongezi Ncaphayi (South Africa)
Mongezi is a South African artist from Benoni, near Johannesburg. He studied art at Ekurhuleni East College. He learned the art of printmaking at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg and then at the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA. Winner of the Gerard Sekoto Prize in 2013, he is going to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a residency. In 2019, he won the “Africa First Art prize”. It is on this occasion that the Atelier le Grand Village published and printed a series of lithographs.
Pauline Gutter (South Africa)
Born in South Africa, Pauline studied at the Bloemfontein School of Fine Arts in the Free State. Winner of the ABSA l’Atelier prize, she went to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a residency. She then worked with the Atelier le Grand Village, which published a series of lithographs on the theme of “Post Colonialism”, a theme she also addressed in painting and video.
Celia Eid (France, Brazil)
Born in Brazil, Celia is now living in Paris. Her pictorial, graphic and videographic work is imbued with a very strong musical sensitivity. Her videos have been shown in several festivals in France and around the world. Her Internet animation, “Se tais, si ça vous chante”, won the prize for best interactive film at the Flux 2005 festival.
Côme Touvay
Côme Touvay, textile designer, specialized in both artisanal and industrial weaving, presents personal creations and research: DIAMONES an installation of 15 three-dimensional mini-textiles, “the curtain of the night” created for CODE DE NUIT, SAMA a project based on a reflection on the graphic sign, language and otherness. A collection that seeks to show the variety of forms and expressions that can be found in weaving in the broadest sense.
Touvay is a winner of the Grand prix de la création de la ville de Paris in 2006, he is also co-author of the collection Nuée for which he receives the Van de Velde prize in Belgium. He works for Hermès, Cartier, Rochas, Renault design. Professor at the ENSCI and then at the ENSAD, he now devotes himself to the creation of unique pieces on the border between design and art. His creations are the result of a work combining a wide range of materials from the simplest to the most sophisticated: straw, paper, hemp, linen, silk, metal, plastic, cotton, acrylic, ramie…
To complete this dialogue, an exceptional piece woven in partnership with the Belgian manufacturer VERILIN will be shown to the public. It is a skilful work of textile structures allowing a restitution in 70 shades of grey to reveal all the subtleties of a Diane Victor’s work. Finally, the audience will be immersed in the atmosphere of the workshops, in the presence of a lithographic press, called a horned beast, and a loom.
