NES - Abstract 1

Abstract 1

30x40 cm
Technique: acrylic on paper
Year 2025
Artist: NES
Signed bottom right
Unique work
Excellent condition, new
Varnished

Delivered framed, frame in black wood 2x1.7 cm, thus total dimensions with frame: 43.2x33.3x1.7 cm. With hanging system on the back

Due to the work with material and the superpositions, slight undulations appear on the support, especially at the edge. These remain discreet and are an integral part of the creative process (See photos)

Delivered with invoice and certificate of authenticity.

The item will be carefully packed and shipped by Colissimo and insured with tracking.

Artistic approach

This work sits within a plastic approach where material, gesture, and structure dialogue in an balance between tension and spontaneity.

Anchored in an initially sculptural practice, this work transposes onto a flat surface a built approach to volume and material. The compositions develop through successive layers, mixing controlled interventions and more instinctive gestures, close to controlled accident.

The palette, deliberately contrasted, oscillates between dark masses, light zones, and color accents, creating a movement of the eye and visual depth. The textures, the superpositions, and the traces left by the gesture participate in a plastic writing where each layer preserves the memory of the creation process.

Between gestural abstraction and more architectural construction, this work offers a multi-level reading: an immediate, dynamic perception, then a slower exploration of details, rhythms, and internal tensions.

This work is part of a search for balance between strength and fragility, control and letting go, inviting the viewer to a sensitive and immersive experience.

Background

Nes is a Bordeaux-born artist based in the Médoc. Born in 1979. A metal designer, she creates sculptures and furniture from recovered metal pieces. Her work has a strong presence, a definite identity drawn from a baroque world and strongly inspired by punk iconography.
Early on this young woman turns toward artistic creation. It is in 2003, while finishing her university studies with a license in Applied Foreign Languages, that she discovers in a trip to Cuba the art of working metal. This discovery she experiences as a true revelation, leading her to reorient her studies. She follows a qualifying training in metallurgy at IFIP in 2004 then a specialization in 2006 as an industrial and spatial welding technician. While continuing to explore contemporary artistic creation as a self-taught, she completes her training by becoming a qualified pyrotechnician in 2008.
Her works quickly caught the attention of the art world and assert themselves through a strong singularity, earning her several articles in the press (see press kit). In 2007, she wins a Défi-Jeunes, a scheme set up by the Ministry of Youth. For her it is a true catalyst that propels her toward professionalism. From then on, she is frequently sought after at regional, national, and international levels. In 2009 she represents France at the International Competition of the Jeux de la Francophonie, and she exhibits at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut. In 2010, she is invited to UNESCO in Paris where she presents her work during a solo exhibition. As national laureate of the Envie d’Agir program, she receives the 2nd prize in cultural creation awarded by the High Commissioner for Youth. At the regional level Aquitaine and Charente, she receives the 2nd prize in art design from Rotary District 1690.
Drouot rating at the public auction “Young Contemporary Creation” (March 22, 2014, Hôtel Drouot, Paris).

Artistic approach

“At 5 years old, I visited with my parents the torture museum under the Inquisition in Santillana del Mar.
The capacity of the human being to make others suffer horrified and fascinated me at the same time. I was scared by the ingenuity with which man has proven to develop such monstrosity. My work transcends this monstrosity by an appearance of gentleness that hides what humanity can have of violence within it. I want to show the dark side of humanity, the human experience of suffering, the capacity of man to conceal the monstrous part he hides deep inside himself, in order to highlight the passage from shadow to light."

By freeing her gesture, Nes reveals through her sculptures a baroque and poetic universe. She draws on the strength of metal to bring the viewer into her world of arabesques, curves, and chains. Power in the material, fragility in the airy forms born from a complex imagination. From darkness to light, from chain to lace of steel…
A baroque universe, another more playful one, both converge in the same objective, to give a soul back to forgotten industrial elements. Playing with appearances, shadows, light, and contrasts, treating hostile materials until they are guided artistically toward sweetness and lightness. Her artistic signature, expressed through the use of chainsaw chains, has earned her the press nickname “the iron lace-maker.” Ambivalence between form and matter, subtlety of plastic language, detour of materials.
“The questions that drive me: how to exercise discernment and live in society while considering that each person may have a part of monstrosity in him? What are the limits of extreme human behaviors?
How to detach from daily reality, from the illusions of our perception to lighten this suffering, stop hiding this dark part of ourselves?
How to free oneself from prejudices and defy appearances?
How to live with this dark side of the soul? Meditate, accept, deny, rebel, give up?”

Exhibitions

Exhibition “Resonances” for the 500th anniversary of Sainte-Chapelle and artist residency (09/09-06/11/21; residency: 21-25/09/21, Le Trampoline, Vic-le-Comte (63))
Exhibition and selection at the “3rd International Sculpture Competition” of the Biennale Europea d’Arte Fabbrile de Stia (02/09-05/09/21, Stia, Italy)
International symposium “Metal sympozium” and exhibition on the “Metal Trail” (11/06/18-15/06/18, Mlada Boleslav, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic)
Exhibition during the SNBA 2018 Fine Arts Fair (13/12-16/12/18, Carousel of the Louvre, Paris)
Exhibition “Arts du feu” at the H.R. GIGER Museum (17/10-23/10/15, Gruyères, Switzerland)
Capa Esculturas gallery exhibition (12/09-21/10/2014, Madrid, Spain)
Exhibition “Pas à pas” (09/05-09/06/14, Louveigné, Belgium)
Exhibition at the “Feria Internacional del Arte de Granada” (7/05-12/05/12, Churriana de la Vega, Granada, Spain)
Exhibition at “FIARTE 2012” (8/04-20/04/12, Churriana de la Vega, Granada, Spain)
Exhibition at the “Salón Internacional de Mujeres Artistas” (6/03-22/03/12, Maracena, Granada, Spain)
Permanent sculpture exhibition “Carpe Diem”: private collection of the Riviera Hotel & Beach Lounge (from 14/05/11, Corniche El Manara, P.O.Box: 11-4021 Riad El Solh 1107 2150, Beirut, Lebanon)
Exhibition of fresh works created during the art symposium “Riviera Fusion” (12/05-30/06/11, Riviera Hotel & Beach Lounge, Corniche El Manara, Beirut, Lebanon)
Exhibition and selection at the international Jeux de la Francophonie competition. Residency. Intervention in a school in Saida. (27/09/09-06/10/09, UNESCO Palace, Beirut, Lebanon)
Permanent exhibition of the sculpture “Pulsations and Convergences”: private collection of the Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais (from 06/10/09, Beirut, Lebanon)
Public commissions / Public collections

Public artwork for the Lacanau town hall: monumental sculpture “Fòrga” created in homage to the heritage site “La Forge” - Permanent exhibition in front of the town hall (07/24, Lacanau (33))
Commission from the Interregional Directorate for Juvenile Justice Protection (DIRPJJ) – Southwest - (Trophies for the “Parcours du goût” -(13.5x17x35 cm-11.5x16x29.5 cm-11.5x14.5x26.5 cm)-(07/23))
Acquisition of the sculpture “La Force d’âme” by the Vic-le-Comte town hall and the Departmental Council of Puy-de-Dôme (Le Trampoline, Place de l’Olme, Vic-le-Comte (63) (11/13/21))
Acquisition of the sculpture “Thétis” by the Departmental Council of Charente-Maritime (Atrium of the Maison de la Charente, La Rochelle (17) (08/20/18))
Acquisition of the sculpture “The Dark Tower” by the town hall of Aiguillon (47) (12/10/16))
Acquisition of the sculpture “Les Trois Portes” by the Beychac et Cailleau media library/art library (10/05/16))
Public commission: Soulac-sur-Mer town hall: sculpture created during the urban residence and public performance “Urban Welding Art” (05/03-12/05/13, Place de la Basilique, Soulac-sur-Mer)
Public commission: UE AJ 33. Practical workshop with youths from Juvenile Justice Protection, aimed at social and professional integration (2013, UE AJ 33, Bordeaux)
Public commission of the Gironde General Council. Trophies “Mission Agenda 21” (10/15/2012, Gironde General Council, Bordeaux)
UEAJ 33 public commission: creation of paintings for the restaurant training “le P’tit Creux.” Practical workshop with youths from Juvenile Justice Protection, aimed at social and professional insertion (05-11/05/12; 14-16/05/12; 05-08/06/12; 11-19/06/12, Listrac-Médoc workshop)
Soulac-sur-Mer town hall public commission: sculpture for the 20th anniversary of twinning with Castrillo de Murcia (04/2012)
Creation of a monumental mission cross (02/2012, Cussac-Médoc town hall (33))
Public commission: creation of a monumental sculpture for the entrance of a media library (Inauguration 10/09/11, Beychac et Cailleau)
Creation of trophies for the Michelet Challenge. Practical workshop with youths from Juvenile Justice Protection, aimed at social and professional insertion. (2010/2011, UE AJ 33)
Creation of sculptures for school parking. Project with the participation of children. (2009, Avensan town hall (33))