Leo Gallery | Shanghai
Der Albtraum der Bienenkönigin: Cécile Lempert Solo Exhibition
Leo Gallery is delighted to present Cécile Lempert’s debut solo exhibition in China, Der Albtraum der Bienenkönigin, on view from May 25 to July 14, 2024, showcasing the artist's latest body of works created this year.
Lempert's work is deeply intertwined with her immediate surroundings, focusing on specific psychological states and nuanced interpersonal relationships. Drawing inspiration from her family photo archives, she weaves together different segments of pictorial histories. Rather than merely highlighting the pleasant aspects, the artist is more intrigued by contradictions and ambiguities, striving to encompass the emotional integrity of the scenes. “By detaching individual pictorial elements, new narratives unfold that shift or even dissolve temporal and geographical localizations.”[1] Yet, these works retain a nostalgic ambiance.
The series title, "Der Albtraum der Bienenkönigin (Queen Bee's Nightmare)", originates from a drawing by the artist's son, Ismael, reflecting a dream he had one night and the "Queen Bee" figure he created. Lempert is interested in “the bare psychologic effect of dreams as a tool for helping humans when we perceive something disturbing by transforming it into a new ‘perception’, ‘event’, or some kind of ‘floating image’ as a crucial part of the transformation act.” Starting from a very direct but subconscious strategy of a child to handle with fears and moments of losing control, Lempert believes that the psychological mechanism of such dreams is a fascinating subversion method to approach difficult topics such as the perception of power, hierarchy and authority, which resonates in the manifold associative field of this peculiar figuration of a “Queen Bee”.[2]
In the exhibition, Lempert unabashedly presents large-scale "family portraits," establishing relationships of mutual observation and whispered secrets between paintings through the penetrating gaze that traverses the canvas. "She discovers the fragility and reverence of perceived life through the shifting of the view of the figure or animal in her paintings, the way she composes her work is reminiscent of mechanical imagery (photography or film), and the large amount of movement in the different paintings triggers the viewing of each other."[3] The childlike forms of expression in certain works harmonize with the exquisite depiction of specific psychological states from an adult’s perspective. Juxtaposing ambiguous landscapes alongside the portraits, or what seems like distant white horses "intruding" into the family narrative, further diminishes the readability of the characters' gazes captured by the artist's brush, disrupting the boundary between reality and imagination. “Despite their intensity, there are spatial voids that offer space for personal projections into the here and now.”[1]
[1] Miriam Bettin, "Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again" exhibition text
[2] Cécile Lempert, “Der Albtraum der Bienenkönigin”, artist statement.
[3] He Xiao, “Polyphonic Resonance” exhibition text
