Silvia Calmejane
Paintings
France
About the artist
‘I would say that art only begins when we draw badly’
Born in 1965, Silvia Calmejane studied live modelling, watercolour and oil painting in Paris. Silvia Calmejane decided to devote herself to painting after ‘her pub years’, of which we can still find some memories in her work. She quickly freed herself from academic drawing to look for automatic drawing, as there is automatic writing. A spontaneous and instinctive painting. As a disgruntled left-hander, her left hand quickly asserts itself more freely, the line stronger and more faithful to what she wants to express. She quickly leaves the canvas to find a wooden support that suits her, on which the collage, acrylic paint and plexi that play a role in her work emerge more easily, as she finally gives voice to her nature: mirror writing. Today, she invests her own space in her own landmarks, telling herself a little each time she leaves a piece of the puzzle in each painting or totem pole, discreetly leaving some trace of her story. Silvia Calmejane's work is inspired by the Art Brut of Jean Dubuffet, but also by his artistic vision, the art of not reproducing: ‘... I would say that art only begins with bad drawing, that we draw worse and that more we make a creative contribution ‘. This vision does not prevent her from admiring Klimt or Egon Schiele, Matisse and Picasso, but she finds herself in the work of Combas, Basquiat, Villeglé, Rauschenberg....
-
Silvia Calmejane's world is raw, powerful and vulnerable at the same time. Her paintings, which depict lush jungles or strange coloured figures, constantly confront the viewer with their own gaze. In this confrontation with the mysterious creatures of her universe, she favours - in her own words - the ‘non-reproductive’. Isn't the escape from figuration the best way to depict the ineffable forces of the human soul?