Juxtapoz Magazine - Laurent Proux "The Nature Poem" @ Semiose, Paris

"Many have their eyes closed or their face in a dark shadow, or they completely turn their back to us, exposing without any reserve the rest of their body to our gaze. In the triptych entitled The Nature Poem (2025), all the figures ignore us, showing instead the top of their head, the underside of their chin, the sole of their feet, the back of their shoulders, the geometry of overlapping limbs at rest. As if freed from the concern of being seen,"

"Within a group architectured by three monumental bodies (Duel, 2025), with riffs on the theme of the ages of life, one standing and one on the ground, one character leans with the palm of their hand on the eyes of the one on the ground. This does not look like a brutal gesture; the blinded figure's arms are free from their ordinary limits, they lengthen, soften and turn into a reptilian organ or one affected by some strange deformity. Nothing threatening here, it seems."

"Often, with Laurent Proux's painted bodies, we are not quite sure who owns which limb; there is an overall delightful confusion or a sort of organic pooling. The bodies made available come together and hybridise. Plugging in on each other, connecting their emotions via a caress or an embrace, they escape conventional desire-induced projections. Something from the Mannerist legacy runs through these pictures."

Laurent Proux opens The Nature Poem at Semiose, Paris (Aug 30–Oct 11, 2025). Painted figures often avert the viewer, exposing other body parts—the head, the underside of the chin, soles, shoulders—and sometimes separating heads from bodies. In the triptych The Nature Poem figures ignore the viewer and present overlapping limb geometries at rest. A monumental group (Duel, 2025) stages three bodies riffing on life stages; one figure blinds another while the blinded arms lengthen and morph into reptilian or deformed organs. Bodies hybridise, limbs blur ownership, emotions connect through caress and embrace; a Mannerist legacy pervades these extravagant melees.

Read at Juxtapoz