Galerie Maria Behnam-Bakhtiar is pleased to announce Conveyance of Joy an exhibition of select works by French artist Marie-Cécile Aptel, on view from May 18 through August 5, 2020 (extended through August 28, 2020).

Marie-Cécile Aptel will present a selection of large-scale abstract canvases that span through over 15 years of artist’s practice, marking her first exhibition in the Principality of Monaco. The works are united by a definite emotion the artist felt at the time of their creation - an intense joy, either spontaneous or experienced as a result of a conscious pursuit in challenging or darker times. Marie-Cécile Aptel avoids attributing meaning to her works by leaving them untitled, allowing a direct conversation between the canvas and the viewer, leaving interpretation to the latter. Evidently multi-layered, but light handed and free, the works often feature deliberately childlike details, adding unrestrained sensibility to Aptel’s canvases. Some works resemble classroom blackboards filled with endless scribbles suggesting innocently mischievous behaviour against the conventional order, a desire to liberate one’s inner self. The scale of works is all-enveloping, emanating the spirit of exultation throughout the space and onto the viewer.

Beautifully proportioned with innate sense of colour and ease of movement, Marie-Cécile Aptel’s paintings embody the quintessentially French joie de vivre. For this very sensibility, Patrick Frey, the president and creative director of the renowned French fabric house Pierre Frey, reproduced one of Aptel’s paintings from his collection on a linen fabric, entitled “Arty” it rapidly became an iconic design of the house and a legend in the world of design.

Marie-Cécile Aptel’s works have been exhibited internationally, and are included in numerous notable public and private art collections.

About Artist

Marie Cécile Aptel (b. 1958, Paris) lives and works in Rouen, France. Aptel’s solo exhibitions include Musée de Louviers, Louviers, France (upcoming); Maison de la Culture, Bourges, France; Alliance Française, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her group exhibitions include Ningbo Museum of Art, China; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Agen, France; FRAC Haute-Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France; Musée de Dieppe, Dieppe, France. She is in the collections of Mairie of Paris, Fondation EDF, FRAC Haute- Normandie, Jean-Jacques Lesgourgues (Collection Quasar).