40mcube
48, avenue Sergent Maginot
35000 Rennes

Critics of Loïc Ragnénès ’ work look at it in an indirect way, talking about topics as diverse as cooking and Brittany, using metaphors instead of exploring his inspirations, his choices and his productions.

Loïc Ragnénès makes a systematic treatment of images – from films, masterpieces of art history, everyday scenes, partial or in their entirety – that he selects in books, newspapers or on Internet. He reproduces those images with paint or colouring pencils using a screen, clearly borrowing from pointillism, the modernist frame, Gerhard Richter and the pixel. This crafted treatment of the image by omission gives a fragmented vision that can still be reconstructed by the eye.

This monochromatic screen, of a carefully chosen colour, acts like a filter, creating distance between the initial image and the viewer. It levels the images and their diverse origins: a still life by Cézanne and a photograph of a tramp lying on the ground share the same wall.

Each of Loïc Raguénès ’ exhibitions offers a layout of his artworks that take different sizes, from small formats to murals. Each exhibition bears this evident aspect while at the same time, creating incongruity with the images put together, allowing the viewer to make up his own narration.

The exhibition at 40mcube, combining new paintings and an intervention on the exhibition space, can be visited like a session of synchronised swimming, because “with a good awareness of the different segments of the body, your gesture will be more precise in the water.”