ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP
Claudio Coltorti, Max Coulon, Penny Davenport, Katelyn Eichwald, Ludivine Gonthier, Louise Janet, Johan Larnouhet, Marguerite Piard & Ugo Schildge

Gallery Elsa Meunier (Dans les yeux d’Elsa) and Gallery Mathilde Le Coz are pleased to join forces once again to present “Entre chien et loup” a collective exhibition bringing together the work of nine artists from Italy, France, Scotland and the United States renewing the canonical theme of the bestiary. Just as in the famous medieval fables, the main characters in this exhibition are animals: between domestic poetry and fabulous stories, the artists paint, sculpt and tell their relationship with nature and animals.

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“Entre chien et loup“ is a French expression referring to this twilight moment when no one can recognise a wild animal from its domesticated brother, when a pet becomes a ferocious beast, that irresistible drift towards the depths of night when nature seems to regain absolute possession of its rights. Whether pet, wild beast, chimerical creature, anthropomorphic or gentle cuddly toy, the exhibition unveils with the work of Claudio Coltorti, Max Coulon, Penny Davenport, Katelyn Eichwald, Ludivine Gonthier, Louise Janet, Johan Larnouhet, Marguerite Piard and Ugo Schildge, a plural animal that is at once ferocious, fantastic, unknown and familiar.

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The pet is the one that accompanies the artist. It is a furry and fanged member of the family. It is the social animal par excellence which brings comfort, gentleness and protection. They are many among painters: it is the cat Mamos by Marguerite Piard, the cats Rita and Markos by Claudio Coltorti... The wild animal, on the contrary, reactivates ancestral fears. Sometimes terrifying like Ugo Schildge’s wolf or Katelyn Eichwald’s dogs, sometimes fierce like Johan Larnouhet’s nocturnal feline, it is the one we understand through images, videos or drawings. We learn about it on the page of an album for Louise Janet or we collect it as a specimen to study for Marguerite Piard.

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The hybrid animal, a bit of a human, a bit of a thing, is a fabulous chimera that inhabits our imagination. These are Max Coulon’s cement teddies, Penny Davenport’s nice anthropomorphic beings or even Ludivine Gonthier’s delirious and trembling creatures. These are archaic fantasies filled with myths and legends, invented characters from an inaccessible Arcadia where, perhaps, goats, stuffed animals and Men could hear and talk to each other. “Entre chien et loup” is this twilight moment where appearances are transformed into a game of illusion, where the dog can disguise itself as a wolf, the wolf can tame itself into a friendly doggie, and the doggie can behave like a human.