For the Disegni 2025 section of Artissima, Les filles du calvaire present, for the first time, a solo show by French artist Karine Rougier, composed exclusively of works on paper. The drawings reinvent a vision of nature in which bodies and invisible forces merge in a single, enchanting embrace.
Each work, made with pigments, pencils, or watercolors on antique paper, acts as a window into inner rituals where desire, spirituality, and nature intertwine. The paper — a fragile, living surface — reinforces this almost sacred intimacy.
The figure of the putti (putto in the singular), chubby, nude, mischievous little angels that appeared during the Renaissance. Traditionally associated with love, and more broadly with peace, prosperity, and joy, here they enter the scene to celebrate life, complicity, and play. These small winged beings, become in Karine Rougier’s work the protagonists of a dreamlike, tender, and unsettling world. Stripped of their decorative function, the putti are transformed into ambiguous figures, caught in enigmatic and silent scenes.
Karine Rougier will also elaborate composite figures, inspired by Indian miniature painting, where nature and humanity become one. She elaborates them with natural pigments on wasli paper. Additionally, some Watercolor erotic painting appears punctuating the booth, blends innocence and sensuality.
The presentation will bring together around ten recent works, created especially for the fair. Together, they form a dense and meditative constellation, where each image functions as a visual incantation.
Karine Rougier began her studies at the School of Decorative Arts in Geneva, then continued at the École supérieure d’art in Aix-en-Provence. Since 2018, she has taught at the Fine Arts School of Marseille. She represented Malta at the Venice Biennale in 2017.
