Galerie Richard Paris is delighted to present the twelfth solo show of French artist Christophe Avella-Bagur, titled Floating Souls: Spirit of Resilience – Part 1, from January 11th to February 26th, 2014. Floating Souls: Spirit of Resilience – Part 2 will begin at Galerie Richard New York from April 3rd to 26th 2014. Avella-Bagur is one of the Masters of figurative painters of his generation.

Christophe Avella-Bagur returns to Paris for a presentation of Floating Souls with a new body of powerful works. He continues developing his series using different mixed-medias that confront humanity (the singularity of humans) with the standardization of the human being, and of the world. The artist will present scenes with landscapes in multiple spaces, with three dimensional paintings, sometimes integrating some machinery, a procession of a New World in a large format painting , wonderful works on paper and surprising painting/sculpture combinations.

Avella Bagur started his series Face Floating Soul in 2005 with middle-sized portraits. The series now consists of 150 works, painted, drawn, or sculpted. The humanoids integrate at the beginning a human face that allowed a whole pictorial research of following themes: The making of interchangeable beings / The breakdown of the human entity / The materialized F.S. world space / The human clown in the F.S being its own weakness / The acceptance of the dual reality / Political and Social Resistance.

Christophe Avella-Bagur gives us an uncompromisingly contemporary kind of painting, which while remaining firmly figurative presents a fresh look at the complex nature of human identity as depicted by the virtual world:

When I paint I have in mind a long line of great artists who went before me, artists who affect my daily life, like twin brothers with whom I have a spiritual, a mystical and a pictorial relationship. I paint people, because our human condition is the only subject that really matters. I paint what interferes day after day in us without our acceptance and knowledge. My works explicitly reveal today’s conflict between the standardization ot he human being, of his body and mind and of his way of life, and a human being who is still able to make his own choices, who is unique, has his flaws and weaknesses and can still assert his individuality. My work combines two worlds, a world in which humans are soulless mass-produced creatures, all the same and therefore worthless and without ethics, and an another world, in which individuals, in spite of their weaknesses and clumsy efforts, are still able to make up their own minds and shape their own destinies. That’s why my works show two sides of a struggle, because it’s a desperate and bitter struggle, and neither side has won yet. - Christophe Avella-Bagur - 2012-2013.

Born in 1968 in Avignon, France, Christophe Avella-Bagur has been represented by Galerie Richard since 1992. After his successful first solo exhibition at Galerie Richard, New York in 2012, he participated in several exhibitions in the United States: Bosi Contemporary Gallery, New York, MONA (Museum of New Art in Detroit and Documenta USA Pridgeport Art Center in Chicago in 2013.