“My silhouettes of nudes are never sexualized or objectified. Through the representation of women’s bodies, I address many different themes, including intimacy, strength, power, happiness, and freedom, but also anxiety and vulnerability. I represent confident women who are who they want to be — multifaceted, empowered, mysterious, and universal.”
– Faustine Badrichani
Multifaceted, the upcoming debut solo exhibition by Faustine Badrichani, curated by Indira Cesarine and presented by The Untitled Space in New York City, opens on June 9th and will remain on view through June 30th. The featured collection of works explores the concept of womanhood using figurative abstraction and muted colors. The resulting silhouettes are elegant, soft, and often visually immersive as the figurative elements intertwine and overlap across the canvas.
The lack of realistic detail is an asset to the message behind the artist’s work; it’s not about a particular person or even a specific type of person, it’s a philosophical generalization and exploration of the female essence. Indeed, there are many facets and aspects to womanhood, Badrichani’s art is a visual demonstration of them. By painting the figures in different shades of blues, grays, browns, and greens, she mostly avoids sexual tones, like reds and pinks, which she uses sparingly as well as strategically.
“From a formal perspective, my work plays with negative space using a reduced color palette to form contrasting silhouettes. Shapes create lines, guiding the viewer into the essence of women. Through my artwork, I seek to connect intimacy and universality,” explains Badrichani in her artist statement. “This allows me to showcase women as a universal entity, an essence of womanhood. And at the same time, their nudity reveals their intimacy. These women are every woman, each of them unique and universal."
Though the French artist explored a number of different mediums, such as sculpture and oil painting, when she first attended classes at London’s Central St Martin Art School in 2011, she ultimately landed on acrylics, working on paper and wood panel, to complete the work she is best known for today. Multifaceted will feature a number of large-scale paintings complemented by smaller studies, all of which are based on live models, as well as works on paper created with oil pastels.
The collection will also showcase the artist's cyanotypes — works created by a 180-year-old photographic printing process that produces blue prints using coated paper and light, which was discovered by the scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792 - 1871) in 1842. Personally, I find these to be the most fascinating as the images are both modern and almost Victorian in their romanticism. But you can check out the impressive collection in its entirety at the Multifaceted exhibition debuting at at The Untitled Gallery on June 9th.
OPENING RECEPTION
June 9, 2022 // 6pm – 9pm
RSVP: events@untitled-space.com
EXHIBITION ON VIEW
June 9 – June 30, 2022
THE UNTITLED SPACE
45 Lispenard Street, NYC 10013
Note* All of the event information and images are provided by our partners.