Jerome Rapin : Corps et Ames

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Jerome Rapin, "Corps et Ames #8," 2019

charcoal on paper

Reception: Thursday, July 4th, 6pm - 8pm

Jerome Rapin: Corps et Ames

This new series of drawings and paintings comes after many years of experimentation with the visual representation of the body. Drawn to the subject of our own vulnerability by the disease of my mother, I kept on reflecting on this duality strength/fragility that our body encapsulates. Is our body the strong element and our soul the weak point or is it the opposite? does soul is giving us the strength to go through life, supporting an ever decaying body?

The necessity of provoking ‘accidents’ in the creative process, and changing the size of the support (for much larger sheets of paper up to 110x75cm and very large canvases) has allowed me to convey rawer emotion and implicate my own body into the artwork itself. The lines are stronger, the charcoal is bleeding black matter and the marks are conveying depth to the strokes. For the viewers, the drawings will print on their retinas just like the bodies are printed onto the sensitive core of the artist.

At the end of the realisation –they are made during life drawing sessions only- the final images seem to be abstract but they are deeply figurative, the selection of what is represented is simply disorientating. The depth and intensity of the bodies in space are transcripted onto the paper or the canvas with a lot of energy. The lines of the bodies are juxtaposed to re-create the impression recorded by my emotional core. When drawn onto canvases and converted into paintings, the images will be deepened by the oil colours added as a second layer, in a process of pushing further the emotional transcription. 

The resulting artworks are strong, tense and powerful representations of our inner sense of our own bodies through the spectra of our souls.

Jerome Rapin was born in Roanne, France in 1975. He continues, in parallel, the organization of life drawing sessions, and the first drawings and watercolors for the series ‘body extracts’ -referring to his mother’s fight – are born.

From 2007, in London and Cardiff, Jérôme exhibited in a professional setting through different galleries (Kooywood Gallery, Coleman, Degree Art Gallery …) and his work in drawings are shown in contemporary art fairs (London, Bristol).

During his London years, he continued drawing and painting and befriended the many artists who crossed his path. In 2011, he went to Saint Barths (French West Indies) to honour a position of an interior designer. He finally settled on his own in 2015 to find time for painting, drawing and photography, three activities in which he now dedicates all his time. Several exhibitions of his latest works have taken place then. After leaving the island in September 2017, he settles in France near La Rochelle where he has set up his art studio, dedicating now 100% of his time to art, drawing and painting.

Jérôme was awarded the distinction of ‘painter of the year 2017’ by the French Art Magazine ‘Pratique des Arts’ with ‘Robb’ from the series ‘BEAUTE CACHE’, a gigantic oil on canvas portrait. He has also shown his work during the prestigious ‘Salon des Artistes Indépendants’ in Le Grand Palais in Paris early 2019.