Issue 9

Fabien Mérelle was born in 1981 and currently lives and works between Paris and Tours. A graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2006, he is also a former resident of the Casa Velázquez in Madrid, and specialises in contemporary drawing. For some years now, he has also been experimenting with volume installations, following the same aesthetic lines of enquiry as in his drawings, on the question of realism and metaphor, self- portraiture and, more broadly, the human condition.

Painter Anton Hirschfeld was born in Paris in 1992. Anton's Journey, the documentary directed by his mother, traces his journey from childhood and offers a deeply moving look at an exceptional artist with a singular career path, born with a mental disability.

One lucky day, while I was scouring exhibitions and auction houses in search of masterpieces and new talent, I came face to face with a very discreet personality who I've been following on social networks for decades. Here is a portrait of Jean-François Hubert, the renowned expert in Vietnamese art.

Jason Gardner is an American photographer. He lives and works between Paris and New York. He is represented by the Rachel Hardouin gallery. 15, rue Martel 75010 Paris 15martel.com Exhibition: September 2024 We the Spirits, published by GOST Books, 2023. Available to order: 60 euros excluding postage.

The art smuggler

Alena Kunetsova was born in 1986 in the city of Arkhangelsk. She studied at the children's art school in Svetlovodsk, Kropivnitsa region, from 1996 to 2001, and went on to complete her postgraduate studies in Fine Art (KNUSA, 2008).

Born in Belarus, Dasha Art seeks, through her work, to inspire others to see the world with new eyes and appreciate beauty in all its forms. Her philosophy is simple, but powerful: each image has the potential to tell a unique and moving story. Dasha not only captures moments, but transforms them into timeless works of art that transcend time and space. Her passion for photography and her ability to convey emotions through her images make her an unstoppable force in the world of visual arts.

Born in Poland in 1964, Margherita Lipinska graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk in 1989. She continued her studies at La Sapienza University in Rome, where she has lived since 1991, working as an artist. She has taken part in major art fairs and exhibitions, notably in Genoa, Padua, Istanbul and Luxembourg.

The composition of Alexandra's photographs is like her: dual. Ukrainian by birth, Alexandra arrived in Paris in her early twenties to pursue her career as an artist. The soul of her timeless landscapes is bathed in a desire for elsewhere. This introspection, nourished by her travels, is expressed through a particular process: Alexandra takes thirty- six photos in one place and then reuses the same negative on the other side of the world. This superimposition, full of paradoxes, raw and without post-production, weaves invisible links between elements whose souls are revealed in the light of contrasts.

Between light and shadow: portraits of the invisible

Somewhere between photographic portraits and two-headed bears, Jessica Pliez (born 1984) is a visual artist who juggles a range of techniques: pencil tips, revealing chemistry and silver paper, cotton paper, paints and inks, in acrylic or oil. In her laboratory, she explores the terrors of childhood, pagan bestiaries and human portraits, using gouges or ballpoint pens, on copper plate, linoleum or gum, whatever medium she finds or elaborates. The world she presents to us is made up of pieces of hearts, of sewn-up flesh that stabs and intertwines in a universe chiselled with details that are somewhere between gentle and horrifying. Everything is in motion, everything pulsates in these bodies between life and death. In 2021, Jessica took the name Ursika to sign her universe which revolves around her character: "Ourss" and Jessica December for her photographic work.