Cabinet de l'Art | Lorraine Mahot de la Querantonnais | General Outline • Artist: Lorraine Mahot de la Querantonnais • Series: "Les Caprices du Sexe" (The Whims of Sex) • Medium: Collages on paper • Year: 2016 - 2017 | Dates & Informations • Opening: Friday 17th of March 2017 - 7pm/10pm • Visits by appointments: From March 18th until April 2nd | More on Lorraine Lorraine Mahot's practice lies in-between the obscure and the sensitive, where tensions are transformed into aesthetic. Multidisciplinary, her poetic expression takes form through drawings, paintings and collages. The result is always confessional, as an intense dialogue between delicate intimacy and vigorous discourse. Born in France, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Parsons School of Design, attended The Florence Academy of Art (Italy) and Ar.Co (Portugal). Throughout the past ten years, Lorraine’s work has been shown in various group exhibitions in Europe. She currently lives and works in Lisbon. For more information email info@theswitchgallery.com | THE SWITCH Rua Herois de Quionga, 54D 1170-179, Lisboa / Portugal www.theswitchgallery.com info@theswitchgallery.com ____________ [Press Release] On March 17th, the French Artist Lorraine Mahot opens with her first Solo-Show in Lisbon. The Switch has selected her recent series "Les Caprices du Sexe", (The Whims of Sex), a discourse on the frontier of ethics and eroticism, part of Lorraine’s artistic research on comprising vital senses. The set of 34 collages reveals a potent expression: each composition works to shape the obscene, transforming libido into poetics. From an early age in Paris, Lorraine Mahot sought art as a mean of evading social pressures and triumphing over ferocious judgment applied to decency. Thus, sexuality is seen as a liberation, which the artist calls "la joie de l’imaginaire". The composition of each collage brings clues to its genesis: details of naked bodies are re-contextualized to participate in a libertine game of exposing and hiding the erotic. The raw materials used to create these works originates from vintage pornographic magazines, gathered over the years into a personal archive – now deconstructed, rearranged and revealed. The show’s title, "Les Caprices du Sexe", pays homage to the homonymous novel by Renée Dunan, published in 1928 and considered the first pornographic narrative written by a woman. The precocious reading of the book was revealing to the Artist, who rescued her affective memories in this series produced in Lisbon. Her compositions are closely related to Dunan’s writing, carrying the intensity and the formal vigor, the richness of the visual repertoire as well as the presence of ardent and frenzied imagery. "It is necessary to dare saying no matter what! Morality is beyond where we imagine it", says Dunan. Lorraine's moral discourse takes its tone through fragments and cuttings. Anarchism and naturisms outweigh a possible feminist tendency. Here, the literary inspiration and the artist’s visual production are combined to enrich themselves: the old-time perfume brings a fierce enthusiasm, discernible in the precise composition of colors and shapes. The production of French Artist Lorraine Mahot lies in-between the obscure and the sensitive, where tensions are translated into poetry. The result is always confessional, an intense dialogue between delicate intimacy and vigorous expression. Multidisciplinary, Lorraine’s work varies from drawing, painting and collage. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Parsons School of Design, attended The Florence Academy of Art (Italy) and Ar.Co (Portugal). Throughout the past ten years, Lorraine’s work has been shown in various group exhibitions in Europe. She currently lives and works in Lisbon. The exhibition will open on Friday 17th of March 2017, from 7pm to 10pm, and will remain until April 2nd, by appointment only. Lorraine Mahot is the second Artist to exhibit in The Switch's Cabinet de l'Art. Located Rua Heróis de Quionga 54D, this Artist-run Gallery features emerging talent in frequent exhibitions. The annual program has already confirmed individual shows of French Artists Lizzie Joyce Pearl, Skoya Assémat-Tessandier and Sébastien Zanella, Portuguese Gonçalo Preto, Russian Anzhelika Ishkova among others. For more information and bookings, visit www.theswitchgallery.com or write to info@theswitchgallery.com
