Entre ombre et lumière: Jean-Michel Comte & Mane Phély

“Entre ombre et lumière” brings together two singular artistic voices: Jean-Michel Comte and Mane Phély, whose practices explore the tension between concealment and revelation, instinct and structure, raw gesture and sculpted form.

Born in Nice and now based in Geneva, Jean-Michel Comte draws from the luminous contrasts of Provence. His work emerges from a deeply physical engagement with paper and ink—covering, scratching, obscuring, and uncovering. Each drawing is where hidden emotion, memory, and impulse take shape and become artistic. Through obsessive lines and layered surfaces, Comte constructs what has been described as an "organized chaos": a personal lexicon where shadows hold as much meaning as light. His process is both expressive and repressive: it is an ongoing dialogue between revelation and concealment.

 

In contrast yet in resonance, Mane Phély approaches material with attentive patience. Born in Nogent-sur-Seine and working in Olivet, her practice is rooted in a profound relationship with nature. Cardboard, a humble material yet surprisingly resilient, became her chosen medium during a residency in 2014. Under her hands, it transforms into sculptural forms that evoke geological strata, volcanic landscapes, and vegetal growth. Whether through wearable sculptures or large-scale wall installations, Phély elevates matter beyond its ordinary function, revealing its hidden strength and poetic potential.

Together, Comte and Phély invite viewers into a space where shadow is not absence but depth, and light is not surface but revelation. Ink and cardboard, gesture and structure, turbulence and organic rhythm intertwine in a dialogue that transcends medium.

 

A dynamic dialogue between drawing and sculpture, gesture and structure:

- Jean-Michel Comte’s immersive ink works, embodying instinctual mark-making memory.

- Mane Phély’s monumental cardboard reliefs inspired by mineral and vegetal landscapes.

- An exhibition that redefines fragility and strength, between shadow and light.