The quest for emptiness to highlight the fullness of human beauty.
The harmony of Solids and Voids in a Subject/Ground, Painting/Metal relationship characterizes the work of Laurence Litomi. If the eye is irresistibly attracted by the intense colors of the painted or “solid” parts, it is the “empty” areas leaving the bare metal that highlight the painted areas and give birth to the subject.
Resulting from this duality of full and empty, eternal icons, legends of History, and anonymous characters reveal themselves body and soul in a magnetic double-I.
Like these subjects, Laurence Litomi’s technique is complex, thoughtful and meticulous. Each artwork is unique and entirely handmade.
Plastic photographer, Laurence can organize a shot with the subject, search through its collection of thousands, or use existing snapshots.
The photograph is then extensively reworked by the artist who retains only the essential contours. It’s the quest for emptiness! This minimalist image is then projected onto an aluminum plate on which the artist gives it another life, thanks to his multiple brushes. Each color is unique and created by Laurence Litomi from natural pigments. A resin, skillfully applied by the artist using a complex process, sublimates the colors and brings a smooth and shiny finish to the work.
Laurence Litomi has chosen to reveal her new series entitled “Butterfly” on the occasion of this solo exhibition.
In this new series, a butterfly interferes in the work. He disturbs the scene, the motionless perfection of the character, the purity of Litomi’s aestheticism.
Narrator of the work, he whispers in the ear of the icon, as well as that of the spectator.
It speaks of the transience of life, of love, of fame.
It tells the soul of the character.
Of the green color of hope, the butterfly carries in filigree, hidden, camouflaged, the initials of its lover. Marylin and JFK, a secret affair for two butterflies with a winged and ephemeral destiny!
The work bears the title of the film in which Clint Eastwood embodies the character of “The Man With No Name”. The 2 butterflies that surround him ask the question of who is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly? Can we ever trust appearances?
Ella Fitzgerald is ecstatic in front of two butterflies which remind her of this legendary duet she formed with Louis Armstrong and more particularly the song Summertime.
This work is a tribute to the album “Black and Blue” by The Rolling Stones. The butterfly is Keith Richards, inseparable from Mick Jagger, his composer twin.
This work, based on an archive photo from the Indochina War, depicts a butterfly with a torn wing, resting on the ammunition It is a hope that has taken lead in the wing but which continues to believe in peace.
This work is a tribute to Dora Maar. Surrealist muse then muse, lover and model of Picasso, she played an essential role in the life of the Spanish painter… even if it means sacrificing her first love, photography. Placed on the brim of her hat, unbeknownst to Pablo’s gaze, she imposes herself on this photo and embodies the woman of influence who inspired Picasso’s most brilliant and strongest period.
Queen B…B for Butterfly. How many times in her life has she dreamed of being this innocuous little butterfly, invisible to everyone’s eyes, to escape with a carefree flutter of wings, far from the weight of his fate?
Go in search of artist Yayoi Kusama’s butterfly which has hidden under a pea!
Steve McQueen, millionaire burglar of “The Thomas Crown Affair” converses with a butterfly! Red and black and loaded with symbolism, it announces the passionate love story between Thomas Crown and the vigilante Vicky Anderson played by Faye Dunaway alongside Steve McQueen.
Brigitte Bardot, the absolute icon, is above all a free woman who was the spokesperson of her generation. The butterfly is the symbol of her freedom, she flees the celebrity that traps her and her beauty that reduces her to her image.
In 1971, naked Yves Saint Laurent shakes up the codes for the advertisement for the launch of his first perfume: “Pour Homme”. What does he think about Jeanloup Sieff’s goal? That it is an artistic act as was her dress inspired by Piet Mondrian…