Ma Dan
5 MARCH - 24 MAY 2015
Opening with the presence of the artist
Thursday March 5th 6pm - 8.30pm
« Accompany »
Marussa Gravagnuolo and Christine Lahoud will present, in the two spaces of the
gallery at rue Jacques Callot and rue Mazarine, the new artworks of Ma Dan. The
exhibition at Pièce Unique gallery is the first solo show in Europe for the Chinese and
promising young artist.
Ma Dan is an emerging Chinese artist born in 1985 in Yunnan Province. She obtained
in 2011 a master’s degree in Yunnan University Institute of Arts. Ma Dan’s works have
been exhibited in the United States, Taiwan, and Beijing and at other major
international art fairs.
MA DAN – « WATCH QUIETLY N°2 »,2014
OIL ON CANVAS CM 60 X 80
COPYRIGHT MA DAN – COURTESY GALERIE PIECE UNIQUE, PARIS
Ma Dan’s paintings construct an atmosphere of ineffable tranquility almost
like in a dream. This atmosphere leads the viewer into the artist’s innocence
and glistening green idyllic world that only comes from Ma Dan’s native
Yunnan sceneries, and even more from her many exotic beautiful dreams.
With delicate brush strokes, Ma Dan restores her dreams to its original form.
This way of treating sceneries reminds us of the works of Henri Rousseau,
who also painted luxuriant tropical vegetation with a kind of dreamlike
atmosphere, drawing us back to memories of ancient times. In Ma Dan’s
works we can find the same “primitivism”, freedom and innocence of that
world created by Rousseau and, later on, by Dalí, Miró and surrealist painters.
MA DAN – « COMPANION N°5 », 2014
OIL ON CANVAS CM 130 X 160
COPYRIGHT MA DAN – COURTESY GALERIE PIECE UNIQUE, PARIS
In these bucolic landscapes the little girl in red, of whom the real face is
never shown, which is deeply significant, is not only the probable selfportrait of the artist, the alter ego of Ma Dan, but this lonely, cute and pure
image is also the key to the entrance of her dreams, or the passage leading
to her subconscious realm. She becomes a guide and in the meantime a
curious explorer somehow lost in that bucolic landscape. The choice of the
cartoon style for the representation of the “pocket-size version” of Ma Dan
is because cartoons can simplify the structure of reality. Chinese artists use
this visual form that was originally intended for children to build a world
anew and thus purify their ego. In fact for the Chinese artists of the younger
generation the notion of ego represents an important and huge challenge:
how to face and represent their true self. This is because starting from the
seventies and the eighties the country began to change at an extremely
pace: common national memories are gradually disappearing and being
replaced by fragments of personal memories.
In fact Ma Dan’s paintings transmit the artist’s subjective emotions and
imagination. Following our “little guide” we understand that Ma Dan’s
innocence has its own strength and she uses this to purify our look; in this
way these pictures want to be a sincere invitation to the viewer to participate
and to share her joys and sorrows, so that the pain of alienation is alleviated
through her art.
ABOUT GALERIE PIECE UNIQUE
Located in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près, the historical Pièce Unique gallery is nowadays managed by Marussa Gravagnuolo and Christine
Lahoud.
The gallery was founded in 1988. Its original concept is to exhibit each time only one and unique artwork realized specially for the space by a contemporary
artist. Since February 2000, Marussa Gravagnuolo and Christine Lahoud extended to a second space located 26, rue Mazarine: « PIECE UNIQUE
VARIATIONS » in order to show permanently works by the artist presented in the window of the emblematic gallery of rue Jacques Callot.
Every year Galerie Pièce Unique participates to the international appointments of contemporary art in Paris and abroad.
The choices of the gallery are guided by a gaze opened to every horizon, without a preconceived ideology, but with an exigency of coherence as for the path
of the artists. This permanent dialogue that Marussa Gravagnuolo and Christine Lahoud entertain with the artists is one of the strong values of the
gallery.
GALERIE PIECE UNIQUE 4 rue Jacques Callot 75006 Paris
PIECE UNIQUE VARIATIONS 26 rue Mazarine 75006 Paris
Tel. 01 43 26 85 93
www.galeriepieceunique.com [email protected]