Claire Tabouret

In her figurative paintings, drawings and sculptures, Claire Tabouret scrutinizes identity and takes a closer look at childhood and its enigmas, the individual isolated or within a group. Sometimes covered, made up or disguised, children and women with mute faces stand upright in front of the viewer like frozen frames.

Often coated with a primary fluorescent layer, and realized on large-scale canvas, her works, whose tonalities are sometimes dark and sometimes acidic, as in the ensemble of the Débutantes, exude theatrical enigma. Before the representation of groups and characters, which may recall those of Romantic painting, Claire Tabouret was often interested in aquatic diurnal and nocturnal landscapes. During this time, she notably realized the Maisons Inondées, the series which brought her to recognition, as well as the ensemble entitled Migrants. Originating in internet or archival found photographs, her canvases are tainted with personal experience, unfurling a universe of stories and memories.

Motivated by a sensitivity to the passing of time and the floodgates of vulnerability opened by human relationships, Tabouret’s painting practice is paced between periods of productive urgency and quiet reflection, and animated by layers, fabrics, and full, loose brushstrokes. Her hydrous palette is suspended somewhere in the ether between the synthetic hues of makeup and subdued tones of the earth, simultaneously referencing the natural and artificial ingredients of representation.