Five years after Hygie et Panacée, Frédérique Nalbandian’s last solo exhibition at Galerie Eva Vautier, a new exhibition is devoted to her today, to coincide…
Five years after Hygie et Panacée, Frédérique Nalbandian’s last solo exhibition at Galerie Eva Vautier, a new exhibition is devoted to her today, to coincide with the release of her monograph in October 2026. A graduate of the Villa Arson (Nice) in 1996, Frédérique Nalbandian shapes soap. Its different states – solid, liquid, foam, effervescence, drips, stalactite formation – interest her in expressing new forms that she either halts or lets evolve, thereby turning time into a medium. Soap, which is particularly hydrophilic, lends itself perfectly to all the changes the artist wishes to bring about. For almost thirty years, the artist has developed a singular body of work in which Marseille soap, plaster and water become the agents of a reflection on time, the living and memory. Matter is transformed there, altered and regenerated, revealing an acute awareness of the fragility of the world. In the background takes shape a meditation on the human condition, in which disappearance and metamorphosis never oppose each other. The gesture of the imprint rubs shoulders with that of direct carving: hands, ears, brains, faded roses or modular columns make up a vocabulary of fragments that the artist moulds, stacks, suspends or lets dissolve. This processual dimension has led Frédérique Nalbandian to work in venues as varied as the Sainte-Barbe chapel in Bruay-la-Buissière, the Adhémar chapel in Montélimar, the Cordeliers gardens in Digne-les-Bains or, more recently, the church of San Francesco in Ventimiglia. Her works are now held in several public collections, including the Frac Sud, the Gassendi museum in Digne-les-Bains and the Musée du Pavillon de Vendôme in Aix-en-Provence. The exhibition accompanies the publication of the artist’s first monograph, 1994 – 2006 – 2025, Frédérique Nalbandian (Éditions Arnaud Bizalion, October 2026), which traces thirty years of research around plaster and soap. The book received support from the ADAGP, the SOGEDA-Monaco and the Fonds de dotation François Fauchon. Authors of the texts for the monograph: Jacques Leenhardt, Les végétations rêveuses de l’amorphe; Isabelle de Maison-Rouge, La persistance de l’écume; Jean-Marc Réol, Le laboratoire; Philippe Piguet, Frédérique Nalbandian, d’hier et d’aujourd’hui; Ondine Bréaud-Holland, L’écoute, Jacques Leenhardt, l’élévation et la chute dans la pesanteur et la forme d’espérer; Sophie Braganti, Chemin de roses .
