Work by Jean-Francois Lepage

http://www.hauserandhauser.com/artists/jean-francois_lepage/works.php 




"For the past three decades while the world saw dreams in its sleep, Jean-Francois Lepage was seeing them while wide awake. Translating his visions into captivating photographs, drawings, paintings, and collages, Lepage stops time to wander in the surreal landscapes of the subconscious moments caught in between the conscious movements of the individual.

Working out of Paris, France, Lepage has created a hybrid body of work that laces together cinema, surrealism, and haute-couture. His subjects stand lonesome, numb to their own high fashion glamour, deeply gazing into a void that seduces their hidden souls with an ecstasy of solitude and the eventual promise of death. The images, at first site, appear to be carefully crafted with dramatic artificial lighting, highly saturated color choices, exaggerated wardrobe and makeup styling, and the flawlessly placed models. But when one begins to engage with the images with further pursuit for meaning, one realizes that what stands before them is purity. Past the complex exterior of each composition, Lepage captures the moments of truth that expose the individual more than they, themselves, can understand. A subtle movement or gesture completes each frame to the highest point of perfection. The effect is both soothing and physically disturbing.

Lepage has set himself apart as both a fashion photographer and a visual artist with his innovative approach of merging the two worlds into his own conceptual universe of image making. With the use of drawing and deconstructed collage, Lepage further pushes his work to explore his insights on individuality, mortality, and the unspoken forces which guide the sublime emotional instincts of the human mind.

The haunting work of Jean-Francois Lepage speaks the universal language of solitude, self-reflection, and the uncontrollable desire to find beauty and comfort in the mysterious truth behind life, death, and everything else in between."

Text: Darya Kosilova-The Lab Magazine

Solo Exhibitions


2011
Bangkok Art Cultural Center – MoonLight | Bangkok, Thailand

1998
213 Gallery – Marion de Beaupré | Paris, France

1995
Lucien Durand Gallery (drawings) | Paris, France

1994
Camera Obscura Gallery | Paris, France

1994
Camera Obscura Gallery (paintings) | Paris, France

1994
Confluences Maison des Arts Urbains (paintings) | Paris, France

1994
Grande Galerie de l'évolution du Muséum National d'histoire naturelle, Permanent exhibition (glass paintings)| Paris, France

1993
International Fashion Festival of Photography | Monte Carlo, Monaco

1992
White Art Gallery | Tokyo, Japan

1988
Le Comptoir de la Photographie Gallery | Paris, France

1988
French Cultural Center | Warsaw, Poland

1983
Canon Gallery, Portraits of the Actress Isabelle Adjani | Paris, France

Group Exhibitions

2010
Modemuseum Hasselt – UltraMegalore | Hasselt, Belgium
2002
Deichtorhallen – Archeology of Elegance : 1980-2000, 20 ans de photographie de mode | Hamburg, Germany
1996
Aperture Gallery – French Photographie | New York, USA
1993
Musée Nicéphore-Niépce – Treize en Vue | Chalon sur Saône, France
1988
Cultural Center Cac de Belfort - Les quatre saisons | Belfort, France
1987
Fashion Institute of Technology | New York, USA
1985
Espace Kodak Gallery | Paris, France