Jean-Pierre FORMICA

Jean-Pierre FORMICA First Editions Two signed, numbered woodcuts (32/70) Panta Rhei I, Panta Rhei II, 2025 First and foremost a painter, his work is rooted in a lineage of imagery but, above all, in substance and materiality. He has exhibited at the Chapelle des Jésuites in Nîmes, the Musée des Oudayat in Fort-de-France, the Musée de Toulon, the Musée de Montbéliard, and the Institut français in Tel Aviv Since the 2000s, sculpture has become an increasingly prominent element in his work: terracotta or bronze works cast from impressions—a sort of modern archaeology that also emerges from water, transforming into salt sculptures: gnarled forms, hybrid amphorae, and mannequins resembling a buried army, expressing a “new nature.” Exhibitions at the MAMAC in Nice, the Espace Paul Riquet in Béziers, the Espace Vallès in Grenoble, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes, the La Cupula Cultural Center in Mérida, Mexico, the Musée Réattu in Arles, the Chapelle du Méjean in Arles, and the Hôtel de Gallifet in Aix-en-Provence showcase the various facets of this prolific artist. He has created large-scale murals in Arles, Nîmes, and the Alpilles; for the Apart Festival; during the Nuit Blanche; in the Pommery cellars in Reims; and in Liège, Belgium. His latest series of “révélés papers” synthesizes the work of the painter, engraver, and sculptor, where the incision reveals color like a buried palette. These monumental works seem to draw as much from sculpture and linocut as from painting in their creative process. Actes Sud has published several books dedicated to him, including a major monograph covering the artist’s creative output over the past fifty years. It highlights the continuity of thought and action in this insatiable explorer on his constant quest for humanity.