Nicolas Party Pays Homage to Louis-Léopold Boilly in Latest Exhibition

This weekend is your last chance to catch Nicolas Party’s “Watercolor” exhibition at New York’s Karma Gallery, along with another intriguing display across the pond at Consortium Museum in Dijon, France.

Party is well-known for creating figurative paintings and installations that beckon with color and often romanticize the body and natural world. A student of art history, Party’s latest exhibition pays homage to the prolific French painter, Louis-Léopold Boilly — who was known for his portraits, genre scenes and caricatures of French middle-class life. Party focuses on the latter by creating a series of murals inspired by Boilly’s caricatures, such as Réunion de 35 têtes d’expression (1825) or Objets Divers (1785), that contrast well with his own saturated tableaus.

In several pieces, Party has isolated certain cropped elements from Boilly, such as a tail end of a dress, as a backdrop to his smaller vibrant artwork. This collage effect is what the artist described in the above interview as a way, “really without any agenda, to put two things on top of each other and see what’s happening, what meaning comes out of it…both are figurative and come with symbolism and narration.” Working spontaneously, Party prescribes meaning after the work is done and much like his past exhibitions, such as the ethereal display at MASI Lugano, creates enchanting universes to sit and gaze at.

“Boilly” coincides with several exhibitions currently ending on January 9 at Consortium, including those by artists Genesis Belanger, Jill Mulleady and Heji Shin.

Also on view, Jeremy Deller is showcasing all his prints and posters from 1993-2021.

Consortium Museum
37 Rue de Longvic,
21000 Dijon, France