Nicolas Auvray Gallery is thrilled to present the highly anticipated solo exhibition of emerging artist Clément Denis, Innerworlds: Journey of a Motionless Nomad. Marking Denis’ first solo show in New York City, the exhibition showcases a captivating collection of ongoing and previous works, offering a profound exploration of life, love, and identity through the painter’s eyes.

Innerworlds: Journey of a Motionless Nomad traces Denis’ transformative artistic journey over the past five years, reflecting periods of stillness, travel, and personal evolution. The exhibition unfolds across three distinct timespaces, each shaping the artist’s evolving palette and thematic concerns:

Noirmoutier – Denis’ home island, where his initial confinement inspired the River Song series, a poignant meditation on climate disruption.

Paris – A city of personal and artistic introspection, where months of creative paralysis, prompted by concern for his ailing companion, gave rise to the Confusion des Sentiments series, weaving couples into eternalized expressions of love.

Vétheuil – The former residence of Claude Monet, where Denis found inspiration in the serene landscapes of water, chalk cliffs, and verdant hills, resulting in the Peindre le vent series, a reflection on life’s winds of change.

Denis’ work explores archetypes, memory, and the human psyche through innovative techniques such as woven paper and bird prints on canvas. His paintings invite introspection, reflecting themes of love, identity, nature, queer experiences, and exile. As Denis notes:

“To introduce my work in the United States, I chose to invite viewers into a realm where various archetypes coexist within the individual. The faces, worlds, memories, and identities constitute the essence of my creative reflections. Drawing upon the insights of psychoanalysis, my aim is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the complexities that shape personal identity and human experience.”

The exhibition also examines the intimate and transient nature of love, as expressed in Denis’ series Desseins de corps:

“The bond. What are the links that unite two lovers, two beings? How can we capture the bond that is formed, deformed, and reformed in a love relationship? These questions run through my new series, where I seek to capture the complexity of feelings at a given moment—a mixture of flesh and emotion. I tear apart and recombine paintings to create a new temporal picture of love from these fragments.”

Denis’ practice embraces both immediacy and reflection. As he explains:

“I like limbo and interstices. Painting is a passage between life before and life after. In the flat depth of the painting, the line, the colour, and the frame bear the trace of the hand’s movement, naked or armed with brushes, spatulas, sprays, rags. The paper absorbs the pigments, curls, and dictates the end of the battle—then the door closes.”

Innerworlds: Journey of a Motionless Nomad presents a rare opportunity to engage with Clément Denis’ innovative approach, where past, present, and emotional landscapes intertwine to reveal the intimate complexities of human experience.