JEREMY DEMESTER

– Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa),The Keeper of Sheep, XXXIX

Ram Muay is a ritual dance performed by muay Thai fighters prior totheir bout, to pay respect to their teachers. The artist salutes hismentors, who put him on the path to mastery and grace. JeremyDemester’s (b. 1988) exhibition embodies this gesture, visuallytranslating the salutation into painting and ceramics.

At the root of this new series is a reflection on nature derived fromthe fantastic colours of Arnold Böcklin’s symbolist landscapes,Fernando Pessoa’s poem The Keeper of Sheep, MargueriteYourcenar’s The Abyss or Colette’s Green Wheat and its sensualdescriptions of the smells, colours and lights of Brittany.

Through literature, Demester finds delight and freedom in the faceof nature: paying attention to delicate leaves, fragrant flowers,abundant fruits, and how closely we are interwoven with nature,united within a single substance. Literature and art are both thevessels of this harmony, and the doors through which we gainaccess to it.

Like guardians of the senses, large earthenware jars with organicand ageless shapes are poised to collect and spread the treasuresoffered by art and nature. Their own set of senses allows them tofeel the paintings we look at, where patterns sprout and grow inmultiple layers of vibrant colours, overlapping each other,bewildering the eye as it seeks depth.

As we move from canvas to canvas, a structure emerges; bodiesappear and dissolve into abstraction; shapes and forces findbalance in intuitive brushstrokes. We witness the genesis of anarrative, in which a struggle is resolved through eurhythmy.

In Ram Muay, Demester returns to figuration, marking a turningpoint in his practice and completing a cycle initiated in 2017 withFire Walk With Me, a period of experimentation that took him to themost abstract frontiers of the landscape genre. This exhibition is asalutation after the fight.

Jeremy Demester (1988, Digne), lives and works between Franceand Ouidah, Benin. Demester’s work has been presented ininstitutional solo and group exhibitions, including at FondationZinsou, Ouidah (2021 and 2015); MUba Eugène Leroy, Tourcoing(2019); Stiftung zur Förderung zeitgenössischer Kunst inWeidingen (2018); Château Malromé, Saint André-du-Bois (2018);Museé d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne (2016);Palais de l’École des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2016); and Palais desBeaux-Arts, Paris (2015), among others.

Demester’s work can be found in the collections of FoundationZinsou, Ouidah; Istanbul Modern; Rennie Museum, Vancouver;Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain Saint-Étienne Métropole,among others.

In 2019, Jeremy and his wife Marie-Sophie Eiché Demesterfounded Atoké, a non-profit organisation that supports children inBenin by providing access to nourishment, education, healthcareand legal assistance.