05.08.2025-07.05.2025
LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS
Jérôme Zonder
GOWEN is delighted to announce a solo exhibition by French artist Jérôme Zonder (b. 1974, Paris). A graduate of the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in 2001, Jérôme Zonder has, for the last 20 years, developed a virtuosic work centered on the constantly reinvented practice of drawing.
Comprising over eighty works, the exhibition brings together recent portraits of Pierre François, a fictional character the artist has borrowed from Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les enfants du paradis. As well as this central figure, two other protagonists, Baptiste and Garance have been leitmotifs in his oeuvre for more than fifteen years.
The variations in the scale of his works generate spatial circulation games: the visitor strolls spatially and mentally through the intricacies of an extremely vivid polygraphic system. In his work, there are neighboring references to Albrecht Dürer, Robert Crumb, Rembrandt, Charles Burns, Otto Dix and Walt Disney, and together, these compose narratives with eclectic, sometimes cruel themes.
Presented as a continuous, monumental installation across the entirety of the gallery spaces, the exhibition reflects the diversity of size and scale of Zonder’s artistic practice. Showcasing the artist’s signature graphite, pencil, and charcoal works, it also reveals the variety of his drawing styles, techniques and supports.
Image
Jérôme ZONDER
Étude pour un portrait de Pierre-François #47, 2023
Graphite et fusain sur papier, 75 x 110 cm
© L’artiste et Galerie Nathalie Obadia