by French artists Erik Samakh and Fab Rideti, and Belgian ceramist Barbara Kandiyoti

14 January - 2 March 2024

Opening on Sunday 14 January, 2 - 7pm at the Frédérick Mouraux Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, in the presence of the three artists.

Fab Rideti © Fab Rideti - Frédérick Mouraux Gallery

Frédérick Mouraux presents a collection of suprising works that all belong to the mysterious world of the forest. The inspiring and nurturing forest of creativity for Erik Samakh, Fab Rideti and Barbara Kandiyoti.

Erik SAMAKH
Erik Samakh is an internationally renowned French artist, who puts himself in permanent contact with his wooded environment - its flora and its fauna - discovering its mysterious and mythical power. The forest is a single entity that offers a boundless sensory field for the artist (auditory, olfactory, visual). Our bodies, with their sensitivities and perceptions, rediscover those of the first occupants of these lands. The self-portraits of the "man-animal" in a primitive forest setting recapture the mysterious world of primal life, the time of beginnings and the need to rediscover nature for survival. 

Fab RIDETI
The artist combines art and derision to make us think about our over-consumption frenzy. It's a fact that man, in his pursuit of "progress", has stopped listening to the guardians of our origins, the people of the great trees. The forest embodies our fears but also enchants us: it is the heritage of a pagan world that has invested our subconscious with myths that can be disquieting or, on the contrary, protective. Fab Rideti repopulates the forest with mysterious figures (elves, dryads, centaurs...) made from recycled cardboard. These characters claim their forest for us, inviting us all to rediscover a new lease of life through the inspiring force of this living, wooded natural environment.

Barbara KANDIYOTI
Where does Barbara Kandiyoti’s interest in mushrooms come from? It's obvious that, as a ceramic artist, she finds mushrooms interesting for their diversity, their pure structured form, and the environment in which they are gathered. It is a way of taking an interest in nature, in what it has to offer, while at the same time seeking out its imperfections (cracks, crushing, decomposition, etc.). Kandiyoti tries to reproduce these imperfections by bringing the necessary unexpected tensions to her work with clay. What sets her work apart is the vitality, the reality - the integration of ceramics with natural elements - and the beauty. For this artist, working with "mother" clay is not only a mastered technical pursuit, but also a personal journey supported by the creative force of nature itself.

For more information, please contact the gallery : info@frederickmourauxgallery.com / www.frederickmourauxgallery.com