Inès Mélia's work is so captivating because the artist has the ability to create from the banality of everyday life. Abandoned books are transformed into poetic tissue boxes, while cheese metamorphoses into striking ceramic candlesticks. The domestic sphere inspires her—a muse with whom she plays, but always with rigor.
It is with this lightness that she begins the 2022 season, inaugurating her first solo exhibition "Ne me retiens pas" at the 75 Faubourg gallery. Accompanied by the exhibition curator Jérôme Sans, the young artist continues her research on the world of intimacy and links each of her works to the word – this sequence of letters which, united, take on meaning, sometimes leading to error or ambiguity.
The artist thus returns to her cherished mediums, particularly books. Layered, they transform into a totem reminiscent of Ettore Sottsass. The spines unite and the titles align to create an exquisite frame of words. On the floor, the literary works encircle each other, displaying a double-edged expression traced by the artist.
Inès Mélia also returns to painting with larger canvases. Pages from the novel The Prisoner Images from Marcel Proust are pasted onto the wall, forming a grid, then superimposed with free and colorful shapes imagined by the artist. A playful jab at the narrative, at the confined heroine.
For Inès Mélia, the word is sculpture. Whether in a book, as a totem, in a painting, or even inscribed on a linear sculpture of eggs, it takes shape and transforms in the viewer's gaze. With "Ne me retiens pas" (Don't Hold Me Back), the artist liberates the word from its page, with precision and playfulness.
"Don't hold me back" – Galerie 75 Faubourg
75, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Paris 8e
From 9 September to 7 October 2022
Louise Conesa
