The enigmatic, dream-like paintings of Paris-based artist Diane Dal-Pra deconstruct the female form in abstracted configurations that consider ideas including materialism, adornment, and identity.
Read MoreDal-Pra graduated with a BA in Design from the University Michel de Montaigne in 2013. In 2015, she graduated with an MA in Art from Les arènes, Toulouse, for which she received a special mention from the jury.
Diane Dal-Pra's paintings engage abstracted possibilities for the female form—exaggerating, contorting, rotating, and cropping bodies and objects in a distinct muted aesthetic that weaves stylistic elements of Cubism, Post-impressionism, Surrealism, and Geometric Abstraction. The artist has also cited Renaissance painting as a significant influence in her practice, and this can be observed in both the style and subjects of her works.
Dal-Pra's small-scale monochromatic works employ a dominant colour to zoom in on stereotyped gestures and symbols in Renaissance art history. Untitled (Orange) (2021) depicts a poised hand delicately pinching a flower's stamen with the thumb and index finger in a reference to the 16th-century painting Gabrielle d'Estrées et une de ses soeurs (Gabrielle d'Estrées and one of her sisters) (c. 1594). Untitled (Blue) (2021) shows a blue-tinged close-up of a feminine hand, fingers slightly parted and suggestively resting within the folds of foliage.
Dal-Pra's examination of the relationships we have with objects—as they shape individual identity, as well as our habits and actions—was developed in the artist's inaugural solo exhibition Of Course You Are (2020) at London's Cob Gallery. The series of large-scale oil on linen paintings saw a sculptural treatment of the figure, contorted and obscured with various objects and textiles to become monolithic hybridised assemblages. The artist's frequent depiction of drapery, garments, and textiles may reference the significance of costume and decoration in identity construction, whilst nodding to Renaissance influences.
Una Vita Cosi (2019) shows a semi-nude female figure lying in an S-shaped pose, her face covered in drapery, and holding a vase of flowers against a simple background featuring a pale pink wall and dark floor. In Everything You Built (2020), the joint of a limb can be glimpsed between within a condensed pile of luxurious fabrics and trimmings. It Belongs to You (2020) depicts a sitting figure swathed in textiles, poised to kiss a taxidermy mount of a ram.
Dal-Pra has stated: 'Hiding faces and using exaggeration in transcribing the shapes of objects and textiles, by almost making them look like armour, was a way to stress duality ... At the end, we become a kind of totem we design ourselves.'
For her 2020 exhibition Acqua in Bocca at Galerie Derouillon, Dal-pra extended her surreal figurative compositions across multiple canvases to develop a new sense of visual and narrative continuity. Demonstrating further experimentation with proportion, balance, and scale, with most figure-object assemblages consuming the pictorial space, Dal-pra blends colour, light, and shadow to achieve a dominating sense of volume. The diptych Still or Sparkling? (2020) captures a profile view of two figures seated at a table, their bodies completely covered in an array of fabrics that see them almost blend into the tablecloth, and each other.
Curator Marion Coindeau has written: 'Dal-Pra's canvases venture into surrealist territory as they maintain affinities with Magritte's masked figures and de Chirico's geometric mannequins. The true portrait seems constructed beyond the physical appearance of reality. Her vagabond characters, seemingly lost in thought, reveal costumes that call upon a child's game or a bohemian wander.'
In 2019, Dal-Pra collaborated with the Italian fashion house Gucci to produce a series of paintings for campaign imagery. She has also collaborated with W Magazine, Kinfolk, and Nicotine magazine.
In 2019, Dal-Pra was awarded the Laureate prize in a competition led by curator Edoardo Monti, for which she held a six-week residency at Palazzo Monti in Brescia, Italy. In the same year, Dal-Pra completed another residency at Villa Noailles in Hyères, France, alongside French photographer Paul Rousteau.
Diane Dal-Pra has presented in solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the U.K.
Solo exhibitions include Acqua in Bocca, Galerie Derouillon, Paris (2020); and Of Course You Are, Cob Gallery, London (2020).
Select group exhibitions include Ιώ, Cassina Projects, Milan (2021); ACS (Artists' Collecting Society), Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2019); and A Private Matter, LM Gallery, Italy (2019).
Dal-Pra's Instagram can be found here.
Misong Kim | Ocula | 2022
