3 + 1: Almost a Revolution: Xavier Noiret-Thomé

Following “CONTINUUM DISTORSION” at the FriArt Contemporary Art Center in Fribourg in May, Xavier Noiret-Thomé continues to explore the form of the exhibition in its emphatic dimension as a “Manifesto” with *Quasi una Rivoluzione*. The program for this exhibition is wide-ranging and tinged with humor, much like its opening canvas (OPERA, 600 x 250 cm): almost a silvery monochrome. Playing with reflections and ghosts—which a triumphant portrait of Picasso (*L’Ogre espagnol*) briefly brings to life—Xavier Noiret-Thomé constructs a multifaceted journey through the grand galleries of the Villa Medici.

The various media employed—painting, drawing-collage, and sculpture—give rise to shifts in both scale and meaning. A story of art and the loss of its motifs, a psychological self-portrait, and the end of utopias—in this cosmogony of variable geometry, pomegranate flowers, the hammer and sickle, the Ready-Made, and very contemporary vanities (Vanity with a Snake) all revolve.

Xavier Noiret-Thomé was born in Charleville-Mézières in 1971. A graduate of the Rennes School of Fine Arts, he completed his studies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. The recipient of several grants and residencies, he is currently in residence at the Villa Medici. His exhibitions include: “Praxis,” Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan (1994); “Dépaysement,” Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum, Deurle (2000); “Cycles,” Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris (2002); “Chroniques/Chromiques,” Galerie Baronian-Francey, Brussels (2003); “Voir en peinture,” Centre d’Art Contemporain Le Plateau, Paris (2003) ; “Hypermnésique,” Galerie Philippe Casini, Paris (2003); “No friture,” Kunstverein Ludwigschafen, Mannheimer Kunstverein (2004); “CONTINUUM DISTORSION,” FriArt, Fribourg (2006). An issue of the magazine *Semaine* dedicated to his work was published in June 2006, featuring an essay by Sophie Delpeux, as well as an article by Cédric Loire in issue 31 of the magazine *L’art même*. See also the essay by Denys Zacharopoulos, “L’énigme de la figure,” in the catalog for the 2001 Prix de la Jeune Peinture Belge, Antwerp, Fonds Mercator. Xavier Noiret-Thomé’s work is represented by Galerie Baronian-Francey in Brussels, Galerie Philippe Casini in Paris, Galerie Tanit in Munich, and Galerie Nicolas Krupp in Basel.