A humanity of sheet metal - Since black gold submerged the earth, barrels and cans remain the symbols of the curse of the world: they are rolled, moved, immobilized, stored, perforated: their unscrewed caps release the concentrate of their distillations, their refinings, spread pollution of water, air and ground.
The artist Julien Allègre, who has a high awareness of this evil, has taken possession of this sheet metal hardware to operate singular metamorphoses. He has therefore accumulated barrels and cans at the entrance of his studio (which is for them like the threshold of a slaughterhouse). One after the other he dismembers them, cuts them up, separates them, then stamps them, re-drills, hammers, welds, engraves. Wearing his gloves, his mask and his glasses, J.A. makes the fire play, sparks fly, the hammer resound. One cannot help but think of the image of Hephaestus, god of the forge and of fire, locked up in his volcanic lair, inspiring fear and sacred respect. – Joël Claude Meffre
Julien Allègre, was born in 1980 in Arles, France. He lives and works in Provence, France.
Self-taught sculptor and musician, he participates in numerous exhibitions and performances in France and Europe.
His work is present in many private collections and foundations in France and further afield.
Julien Allègre is undoubtedly an artist of matter, eager to find the one he has not yet been... He invites us here to feel the metamorphoses as much emotional as concrete of the visible.
His sculptures are the result of several years of work, they reflect the path taken with multiple variations, summoning strong subjects such as the complexity of the soul - its strengths and weaknesses - or on the animality and beauty of nature, or on the timelessness or the irrevocable passing of time ...
Julien Allègre questions our relationship with the living. He mixes genres and asks questions about the link between nature and man: Often the animal seems fantasized, out of an imaginary world and yet its attitude seems familiar to us. Sometimes, he retains only the form or a fragile composition evoking a plant or an organic matter which can be still unknown, leaves there his vision opens with a critical spirit and invites us to sensitize us with the fragility of the world which surrounds us.
Always fascinated by humans, he swaps their skins for bark-like surfaces, their faces take on organic or mineral allures. He then weaves links between the different aspects of the species, his polymorphic language then speaks to us of the universality and the inescapable links so precious to the living.
Read more2023 Affordable Brussels with the Galerie 22, Brussels, Belgium
Solo show, Galerie Menu tiltas, Vilnius, Lithuania
Autres Mondes – solo show, Galerie Capazza, Nançay, France
Autre Ville – solo show, Vaison-La-Romaine, France
Solo show, Galerie Point, St Rémy de Provence, France
2022 Solo show, Galerie Christine, Liege, Belgium
Mutations with the association Perspectives, collective exhibition, Aix en Provence, France
Collective exhibition, Galerie Point Rouge, St Rémy de Provence, France
Solo show, Galerie Danielle Bourdette, Honfleur, France
Art Vilnius, Galerie Menu Tilitas, Vilnius, Lithuania
Supervues, petite surface de l’art contemporain, Vaison-La-Romaine, France
2021 Lille Art’UP with the Galerie 22, Lille, France
National Art Museum, Kaunas, Lithuania
Parcours Arterre – collective exhibion, Séguret, France
Contre Temps – solo show, Courthézon, France
2020 Collective exhibition, Château de Charleval, Charleval, France
Collective exhibition, Galerie Point Rouge, St Rémy-de-Provence, France
Jartdin – collective exhibition, St Michel-en-Grève, France
Dialogues d’artistes – collective exhibition, chapelle du Collège, Carpentras, France
Les formes de l’amitié, Galerie 22, Coustellet, France
Fondation Salinger, Le Thor, France
2019 Art Élysées with the Galerie Art Jingle, Paris, France
Solo show, Galerie Christine Colon, Liege, Belgium
Bêtes de Scènes, Villa Datris, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
Solo show, Galerie Danielle Bourdette, Honfleur, France
Collective exhibition, Jardin Artmelin, Châteaubourg, France
2018 Collective exhibition, Galerie Beukenhof, Kluiesbergen, Belgium
Autre Ville – exposition collective, Vaison-La-Romaine, France
Collective exhibition, Art Castel, Mouans Sartoux, France
Collective exhibition, Maison de Fogasses, Avignon, France
2017 Solo show, Galerie Christine Colon, Liege, Belgium
Solo show, Galerie Danielle Bourdette, Honfleur, France
Cheminement des sculptures – collective exhibition, Gigondas, France
Collective exhibition at the Bastide Rose, Fondation Salinger, Le Thor, France
Château de Beaupré Pia Pierre, St Laurent les Arbres, France
Sculpture en Sologne, Chaumont-sur-Tharonne, France
Collective exhibition, Galerie Claudine Legrand, Paris, France
Les étincelles hurlantes, performance with Pierrejean Gaucher
- Francès Corporate Foundation, Senlis, France
- Salinger Foundation, Le Thor, France
- Town of Courthézon, France
- Town of Vaison-La-Romaine, France
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