Stéphane Couturier

The Galerie RX exhibition of Stéphane Couturier amplifies the dialogue of his work with that of Fernand Léger, a conversation sparked with the exhibition at the Fernand Léger National Museum in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes), open until April 29th.

Galerie RX wished to highlight the abundant thematic and material correspondences that exist between the paintings of Fernand Léger (1881-1955), a pioneer of the avant-garde during the first half of the 20th century, and the photography of Stéphane Couturier, a French artist born in 1957. These two artists share the same fascination for the profound changes of the city, as well as a common interest in the world of work, industrial aesthetics, and modern architecture.

The exhibition at Galerie RX presents the new works by Stéphane Couturier which continue this dialogue with the art of Fernand Léger, notably with a new series entitled « Les Nouveaux Constructeurs » (The New Builders).

In reference to Fernand Léger’s masterpiece « Les Constructeurs » (The Builders), Stéphane Couturier proposes a new vision of 21st century builders.

The exhibition will also present the works realized in the town of Sète in 2018 on the occasion of a carte blanche proposed by the CéTàVOIR association as part of the 2018 ImageSingulières festival.

In this series, conceived to echo Léger’s work, Stéphane Couturier uses the superposition of several digital photographs, a technique initiated in 2004 with his first series entitled Melting Point. The artist creates a hybrid reality from the fusion of two images. This synthesis between two realities produces a multitude of details, in which the spectator’s eye gets lost, causing an impression of movement and dissolution of the subject, within a monumental composition.

Today, Stéphane Couturier’s photography, playing on the potential of the digital tool, combines a documentary approach with a complex treatment of the composition. In the manner of a Cubist painting, it draws from reality, fragments it, and, thanks to the rhythm and contrast between the lines, forms, and color planes, it exceeds itself in order to offer a new perception.

Stéphane Couturier thus questions the supposedly objective nature of the photographic medium; the photo shooting itself becomes the material. From this material is born a machine for the construction of forms, which continuously updates the recorded reality.