Sandra Lecoq ~ Galerie Eva Vautier

Let the birds die

Sandra Lecoq is a painter. But color in her work is braided, sewn and made. The brush is replaced by the needle, the pieces of fabric make good flat tints, and when the paint is there, it is to replace itself. There are techniques that are as unimportant as a sex can be weak. The jobs of “good woman” do not make women good, and the needle that pricks the finger ends up hardening it. If the misogyny of the “great art” motivates the artist, it is with weapons of worker that she faces it. Sandra D. Lecoq is not vindictive. It would be too easy, too macho.

She’s playful, but indulges in these games that emasculate you with sweetness. In the artist’s work, penises are also pretty, colorful and shimmering, braided into carpets or embroidered on blankets, but the softness borders on flabbiness, and the stitching looks like sutures.

Sandra Lecoq quickly understood the workings of this wild candor (psychoanalysis is never far away) and knew how to divert it (art is there). “The dynamic of the one who seeks to have it is more stimulating than the one who is afraid of losing it,” she says so well. That the phallus ended up alongside the skull in a series of watercolors (Le vit en rose) is not surprising. Eros and Thanatos, obviously – to want it or to lose it -, but also quite simply the cock and the head, tormented here by an impulse of coarseness, or let’s say of humanity: the finger of honor is a finger that gets a hard-on, and Vanity the best argument of cynicism.

Sandra Lecoq, a spider spinning her web? a Penelope undoing her own? The image of the mischievous female was too easy not to seize upon. “The effect is disarming: the formula becomes a leitmotif, a ritornello, a flourish. If you don’t want to swallow stereotypes, you have to know how to cut them down, work on them, and pulverize them. Melancholy is never absent from this gentle battle. The work on paper is the clearest reflection of this, by its titles (Blue dust and pink cockroach, Family photos) as by its subjects (superb series of self-portraits where the mortuary figure drowns in the acrylic). But it is still the paradox between the application, the time and the ungratefulness of the process and the formal ardor of the work that testifies to it, as a kind of acceptance of the task, a refusal to offer so easily the luxury of denunciation.

Driven by the desire to sting without hurting herself, to play the caricature without falling into it, this playful worrier maintains the same relationship with her demons as with painting: devious and caustic, but humble and devoted.

Augustin Besnier

Version française

Graduated from the Villa Arson in 1996, Sandra lives and works in Nice. Following the idea of Supports-Surfaces, where the picture is broken down by analytical gestures, she plaits and sews multi-colored fabrics that take shape in the frame and on directly on the canvas. Born of this, oblong penile and sexual forms spread along the ground, on the walls sometimes, as much paint stains, diurnal pollutions thought amused. The long and meticulous performance of her work confronts the vehemence of her object highlighting paradoxes and tensions, suggesting that it is the unconscious “soul of the wild female” who is at work .

Sandra Lecoq is a painter. But to her, color is made through sewing and plaiting. She substitutes paintbrushes for needles, while scraps of material make up the base and when paint is applied, it is to superimpose already existing colour. Some things are as unimportant as the size of your sex. The techniques of the “good woman” do not make women good, and the needle that pricks their fingers, ends up by making it hard.

If misogyny of “high art” motivates the artist, it is with working class weapons that she faces it. Sandra D. Lecoq is not however after revenge – that would be too easy, too macho. She is playful, but indulges in games that emasculate you gently. There is no doubt that little girls like to dress up Ken as women because it makes him “pretty”. For the artist, the penis is also pretty – colorful and shimmering, plaited together to make a rug or embroidered on a blanket, but the softness confines the malleability, and the stiches border on sutures.

Sandra D. Lecoq quickly understood the workings of this kind of wild candor, (psychoanalysis is never far away) and managed to divert it (art is here). “The dynamics of the person who seeks is more challenging than those of one who is afraid to lose,” says Lecoq. That the phallus has ended up along side the skull in a series of watercolours (Le vit en rose) is not surprising. Eros and Thanatos , clearly – to want or to lose – but more simply cock and head, driven by a tormented desire of vulgarity or say humanity : the middle finger is erect, and vanity the best argument of cynicism.

Is Sandra D. Lecoq, a spider spinning its web? or a Penelope undoing it? The image of the malicious female is too easy to not mention. “FEMALE WILD SOUL” she placards at will, always in stencil or sewn in red thread. The effect is disarming: the formula becomes a leitmotiv, an ornamental motto. If you do not want to swallow the stereotype then you must know how to cut it, work it and pulverise it. In this sweet battle, melancholy is never absent.

The work on paper is a clear reflection by their titles (Bleu poussière et rose cafard / Blue dust and pink melancholy, Family photos) as her subjects (a superb series of self-portraits where a dying figure is drowning in acrylic). But it is still the paradox between the application, time and the ingratitude of the process and the formal ardour of her work that demonstrates, as a kind of acceptance of the task, a refusal to offer the luxury of denunciation.

Animated by her desire to sting without hurting herself, to play the caricature without falling over, this worried happy person has the same relationship with her demons as she does with painting: stolen and caustic, but humble and devoted.

Sandra D. Lecoq

Born on 05-05-1972, in Penja Cameroon

Lives and works in Nice

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS

2020

Female Wild Soul, Art Center, Vénissieux

Coup de poing, invitation by Noel DOLLA, Le 109 Nice

2018

Entre-Maille, Workshop at St Marie Psychiatric Hospital, Nice

2017

Self-portrait of others in black, Eva Vautier, Nice

2013

Let’s die of the birds, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice

2012

Pittura in forma di rosa, Martagon Gallery, Malaucène

2009

SDL, Martagon Gallery, Malaucène

2008

Un truc doux, RDF Gallery, Nice

Phallus and Vanity, 3bisf Art Center, Aix en Provence

2007

Le vit en rose, Norbert Pastor Gallery, Nice

Sandra D. Lecoq, Port Lympia College (censored)

2006

Delicious exquisite cadavers or the story of a recomposed holy family, Le Dojo, Nice

Showroom, Helenbeck Gallery, Paris

2002

Sandra D. Lecoq, Villa Arson, Nice

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020
Fire, walkwith me!Anatole Jakovsky Museum of Art, Nice

2019
With pleasure 2, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
Hors Champ, with Delphine Trouche, Le Narcissio, Nice
Life is a film, Ben and his guests, Le 109, Nice (catalog)
One way or another, La Box, Bourges
Children, Entre Deux, Nice

2018
With pleasure, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice

2017

The world or nothing, Annonay

Public lighting, Le 109, Nice

Entre-Temps, Departmental Museum, Gap

2016

The world or nothing, Espace d’Art Madura, Vallauris

A little tour of the neighborhood, Project “Raise your head”, lighting of the Colonel Jean Pierre garden, Art.

The world or nothing, Circonstance Gallery, Nice

Impression of workshop, Castle of Cagnes sur mer

2015

A year of light, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice

Tribe, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice

Trame, Le Moulin, contemporary art space, La Valette

2014

Drawn-Gezeichnet-déssiné, Kunstverein bad salzdefurth, Bodenburg, Germany

2013

“Format raisin “, Martagon gallery, Malaucène

Free entrance but not compulsory, Noêl Dolla, Villa Arson, Nice

Salon de montrouge, Paris

2012

A l’origine, Nice, Galerie Malborough, Monaco

Beautiful to die for, with olivier bartoletti, La Station, Nice

Ici Nice, Les abbatoirs, Nice

2011

20 years of reflection, Ferme des Arts, Vaison

Between dog and wolf, (guest video Sandra Lecoq), Resonance of the 11th Biennial of Lyon, Galerie José Martinez, Lyon

Identity and gender, travelling exhibition

絲印, Macumba night club, Nice

I love women and I prove it, Ben, Nice

The painting otherwise. Art and the French Riviera, Chagall Museum, Nice

The sculpture otherwise, Eco’Parc, Mougins

Random, RDF Gallery, Nice

En espace En surface, Espace Cloître Saint-Louis, Avignon

2010

From the trace to the stain, Martagon Gallery, Malaucène

2009

Discocactus, Exotic gardens, Monaco

2008

CENT, Defrost Gallery, Paris

Le fil du calvaire, Vanessa Quang Gallery, Paris

6 rue Fodéré, La Maison, Nice

Collection Hélène Jourdan Gassin, Les Ponchettes, Nice

45mille baci from bubak, Bijagos Islands Guinea-Bissau

Let the new emerge from the old, (Mao) Centre d’art àcenmetresducentredumonde, Perpignan

2007

Are you well adapted to modern life, Norbert Pastor Gallery, Nice

Democratic Cabinet, Villa Cameline, Nice

2006

Art Multiple, Espace de l’art concret, Mouans-Sartoux

Erotic Cabinet, Villa Cameline, Nice

2005

Beyond Narcissus, David Dorsky gallery, New York, USA

Vinyl, Villa Cameline, Nice

Multiple, Asterides, Marseille

Le stigmate del quotidiano, with Karim Guelloussi, Musée de la Photographie, Mougins

La Réserve, Ponchettes Gallery, Nice

Erotic Cabinet, Villa Cameline, Nice

2004

Editions & Artists books Fair, New York, USA

Haircourt Edition on the net

FIAC Florence Loewy Books by artists, Paris

Wander the night, the Wagram, Nice

Espace Helenbeck, Nice

Showroom Helenbeck, Monaco

Roommates 2, Espace Poirel, Nancy

2003

Roommates, Art Center, Castres

2002

Voilà la France, experimental center for contemporary arts, Carriglio, Italy

Prescient then and now: the resonance of Support/Surface, David Dorsky gallery, New York, USA

Down with the specular commercial society, Espace Gustave Fayet, Sérignan

Guest Star, Raw, Nice

2001

Nice attack to lose, Espace des arts, Colomiers

Sandra D.Lecoq/Olivier Bartoletti, Zoo Gallery, Strasbourg

Prospect#1 videochronic, Marseille

2000

KUB, KUB Association, Nice

1999

DCE, Délégation aux arts plastiques, Paris

1998

Guest room, Galerie E. Canus, La Colle sur Loup

Guest room, La Station, Nice

1997

The 10 days of contemporary art, La Station, Nice

Farewell cruel world, Paris

1996

Apple Z, ARTCO Gallery, Ajaccio

100%, Villa Arson, Nice

49F90, Nice Fine Art Gallery, Nice

1995

Nice by night 3, Night tour in the apartments, Nice

1994

Nice by night 2, Night tour in the apartments, Nice

VIDEO PROGRAMMING

2004

Montevideo, Marseille

2002

Voilà la France, experimental center for contemporary arts, Carriglio, Italy

Projection, Rough cut, Nice

2001

Main basse, La station propose Transport en commun, video programming, MAMAC, Nice

2000

Video Festival, Estavar / Llivia

The senses, Imagespassages, Annecy

1999

Video Fiction Festival, Vendôme

Ephemeral video library, ESCA Gallery, Milhaud

Ephemeral video library, Espace croisé art center, Lille

Blue mornings, Imagespassages, Anneçy

1998

Video, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany

12th video art meeting, Hérouville

Imagespassages, Annecy

Video Festival, Estavar / Llivia

1997

Bandits mages, Video Festival, Bourges

Ephemeral, Vidéochroniques, Marseille

1996

10th video art meeting, Hérouville

1995

Video Festival, E.L.A.C, Lyon

Video festival, Vidéochroniques, Nice

1994

Videograms, Vidéochroniques, Marseille

Bandits Mages, Video Festival, Bourges

OTHER PRODUCTIONS, AIDS, ACQUISITIONS

VIDEOS

2012

Delicious exquisite cadaver 5, filmed correspondence with Olivier Bartoletti

2001

Delicious exquisite cadaver 4 “Waiting for Jonas”, filmed correspondence with Olivier Bartoletti

1999

Vir heroicus sublimis findus / the great lure MAMAC, documentary filmed on N. Dolla, Nice

Delicious exquisite cadaver 3, filmed correspondence with Olivier Bartoletti

Five silences, Vassivière Exhibition, documentary filmed on N. Dolla

Delicious exquisite cadaver 2, filmed correspondence with Olivier Bartoletti

Delicious exquisite cadaver 1, filmed correspondence with Olivier Bartoletti

Odyssey to Vulcano “Painting with the smoke of volcanoes”, documentary filmed on N. Dolla, 3mn 52

The wet dogs, 5mn45

1997

The abstruse traps, 4mn

Four wheels on a bicycle (as part of the Aragon century), 2mn15

1996

It’s pink too, 4mn30

The living bride, 5mn30

Bubbles like a cloud of nails, Performance filmed with Olivier Bartoletti

C’est beau la vie, 4mn

Play Family, 5mn

1994

I love life, 8mn30

1993

Scenography, in collaboration with Olivier Bartoletti

WORKS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE

2011

Fitting out of the functional rehabilitation patio of the Archet 1 University Hospital, Nice

INDIVIDUAL CATALOGS

2006

Delicious exquisite cadavers or the story of a recomposed holy family, Le Dojo, Nice

2002

Sandra D. Lecoq, text by Karim Ghelloussi, Villa Arson, Nice

COLLECTIVE CATALOGS

2019

Life is a film, Ben Vautier, 2019

2013
BESNIER Augustin, in catalog 58 th Salon de Montrouge, June 2013
Free entrance but not compulsory, Noêl Dolla, Villa Arson, Nice
FUCHS Oliver, Women in art, 2013

2012

Boussu, Patrick, in: “Impressions d’ ateliers”, June 2012 (Book)

Originally, Nice… curator Hélène Jourdan Gassin, Marlborough Gallery, Monaco

2011

La peinture autrement, L’art contemporain et la côte d’azur, un territoire pour l’expérimentation 1951-2011, COULONDRE Ariane, FRECHURET Maurice, édition Les presses du réel, 2012

2005

La Réserve, Macchi Catherine: Penelope the slut or the soul of the wild female, p. 18, Galerie des Ponchettes, edition of the Museums of the City of Nice, 2005

PRESS ARTICLES, MAGAZINES

2017
SAJN, Michel, in: La Strada, summer special
Entre-Maille, Workshop at St Marie Psychiatric Hospital, Nice
Trace, Trame, Le Moulin, Contemporary Art Space, La Valette
2014
Cover “De L’art”, 2013/2014
2013
Guéhenneux Lise, in: newspaper “L’Humanité”, De la politique dans l’art entre autre chose, 8 October 2013
SCOLERI Josiane, Noël Dolla ” Free entrance but not compulsory ” in” ciaovivalaculture “.
LAFFONT Nicole, in : Nice-Matin newspaper, July 2013
TIBERI Liliane, in : La Tribune n°696, June 27, 2013
LECLERC Franck, in : Nice-Matin newspaper, June 29, 2013 p.20
SAJN, Michel, ” COCORICO”, in : La Strada, special summer, n°81, p.33
HAY Thierry, “Salon de Montrouge, discovering young French artists,” Blog, May 15, 2013
LORET Eric, in: “Libération” newspaper, 14 May 2013