ALISSA THOR “Si loin, si proche”

This exhibition, curated by MG Paris, precedes the next exhibitions that will be held ‘in presence’ in Paris from October to December 2021. With the aim of highlighting the artistic project of Alissa Thor, her solo exhibition will focus on the theme “So far, so close”, a very impressive feeling people had to face in this long period of confinement.

The artist proposes Si loin, si proche

What makes the encounter? Who is this stranger whose yet totally unknown face is suddenly familiar and intimate to me? I have been working since I paint on what goes to the heart, without reflection and intellectualization, in the human face. On this strangeness that captures us and brings us closer to the other. In painting, on the distortion, the non-realism, which allows us, against the tide, to be emotionally gripped by a portrait. So far, so close.

Clicking through the virtual space, you are introduced in Alissa Thor special universe. Take a virtual walk and have a look at the single paintings. In each painting the focus is always on the “regard”, the eye (s) that often penetrates our souls. Look at the paintings and you will find the importance to get closer. Striking.   out from the whole paintings Alissa Thor always works with oil painting, often on canvas, sometimes on floating canvas. Through the work of Alissa Thor, a return to the figurative takes place, through strong expressionist works created by an artist both painter and poet. In the midst of our world of multiple interchangeable images, Alissa Thor’s oils on canvas question and force us to stop.

It was in oil painting that she found her ideal experimentation ground, made up of encounters. Her paintings aim to bring all your emotions back to you, to shock you, to express yourself. At first glance, they look like portraits, sometimes sketched, sometimes very clear, but the looks, the emotions, a strange softness both hard and tender those are the feelings that succeed in captivating us and getting us out of our comfort zone. It is the whole humanity with “the sweetness of violence” (the artist often quotes Nicola de Stael) which goes straight to the bottom of our heart and captures, in a timeless moment, the disturbing expressiveness of every human being.

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To learn more about the artist: Born in Paris in 1974. Self-taught. Lives in Paris and works in Rouen where she has set up her atelier. Studies of Letters and Philosophy. Documentalist at the National Education for 12 years. Since 2012, she has devoted herself exclusively to painting and writing (poetry). First prize of the city of Pollena Trocchia, Cratere Creativo competition curated by Monteoliveto Gallery, Naples, July 2015, on the theme of Anxiety, she participates in 2016 in the 1st edition of the MG MadforNaples Project. Since 2017, represented by the Monteoliveto Gallery with the PANELS series, (exclusivity), an anagram of NAPLES, her city of heart, with her emotional works, she has conquered various French and international audiences. For a long time “intellectual” and taking pleasure in handling abstractions, the radical need to break and confront the material directly, to take life, from the other end …… Painting is her ideal testing ground, to act instinctively… to resume her own breath, her own rhythm, her own body. Expressionism is of course the movement that “speaks” to her the most.

Les mots de l’artiste

“Je peins pour que quelque chose se passe. Quelque chose entre nous. Quelque chose d’intime et de sauvage. Oui je peins ni plus ni moins pour que vous et moi ayons le coup de foudre, ce truc fou qui secoue mais qui enchante : c’est cela mes toiles – ne soyez pas surpris de leur dureté – le choc y est au premier chef, mais aussi, regardez ce mouvement …”

« Je peins pour que vous vous arrêtiez, pour aller vers vous, pour que vous vous approchiez, pour vous faire face. Je peins pour que les mots viennent, et la douceur, et la violence, et les corps tout ensemble »