Miss Van
dal 23/11/2007 al 28/12/2007
Segnalato da
23/11/2007
Miss Van
Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris
MissVan has become one of the major street artist. Having shown her work all around the world she stays true to her subject and follow on depicting her slightly autobiographical dolls. In the recent years the flashy colors and imediateness of her paintings have opened up on more emotion, showing the fragility of being provocative.
The Miss Van phenomenon returns for a solo show, the biggest she has ever
prepared, in the new Magda Danysz gallery space. It would make sense that an opening for
an exhibition of the sexy, sloe-eyed, pretty girls packing some serious action and otherwise
known as Miss Van’s poupées (“dolls”), would be…swelteringly, sizzling, hot.
Miss Van earned her stripes on the streets of her native Toulouse – a city in Southwestern
France that is home to a world-famous graffiti scene - where she set the standard for her
peers and discovered an early affection for ruffling feathers. With their old-fashioned pin-up
poses and exposed flesh, they seem destined to become objects of scrutiny, if not obsession,
as all exquisitely mysterious women invariably are. Miss Van encountered a certain amount
of political censorship in her early experience painting in her native Toulouse. She is careful
to point out, though, that that criticism came from outside the graffiti scene, and that her
freedom as an artist is central to her work: “I just want to express my fantasy.”
Although nearly inhuman in their delicate
transposition of a certain dangerous
cuteness, it’s impossible not to notice
that her paintings bear more than a
slight resemblance to Miss Van
herself. She recognizes it and even
admits to a phase of sometimes “dressing
like my dolls”.
An artist from a young age, Miss Van
dedicated herself to art school and graffiti
at the same time, and made no efforts to
hide her love for street art from her
professors. In the early 1990s, she began
tagging and going around with friends. It was not long before she began to develop her
trademark “sexy, erotic images that will disturb or seduce people on the street.” She likes to
explore the symbiotic relationship between artist and public space, especially the fact that she
can deposit images freely into a fully engaged environment and thereby encourage a
heightened level of interplay between the viewer and her work.
Opening on Saturday November 24th, 2007 from 6
to 9PM.
Galerie Magda Danysz
19 rue emile Durkheim - Paris
Free admission