J+ Pluie de couleurs, 2024

Gaëtan de Séguin   Emerging artists

The J+ series: Gaëtan de Seguin paints the crowd, but not only. He paints the individual within the crowd, and the crowd within the individual. Each figure tells a story of its own, while contributing to a greater portrait of humanity. The idea behind the J+ series emerged from a tragic event: the Charlie Hebdo attack. Since then, similar events have continued to echo through our collective memory. Yet, life goes on. Individuals, sensitive or insensitive, carry on with their lives, shaping what the artist describes as a “mosaic of a society, a patchwork of men.” Each carries their own fears and anxieties, but also their hopes and desires, in a world of multiple and sometimes conflicting realities.

In these paintings, stylized silhouettes merge, overlap and intertwine in a fluid, almost choreographed movement. Every figure has its own colour, its own presence and singularity, yet none exists entirely apart from the others. Bright reds, deep purples, soft yellows and muted greens create a vibrant interplay of tones, while translucent layers and more saturated pigments give the composition depth and rhythm. Delicate hatching and subtle washes enrich this shared space, where bodies of different sizes and postures come together to form an ever-changing human tapestry. Fluid lines connect the figures, suggesting that beneath their differences lies a common bond: friendship, love and solidarity.

When an individual parts from the crowd, one may wonder why… Who is this person? An intimate portrait? A fifteen-minute moment of glory? An exploration of human singularity? An attempt to represent oneself in an increasingly complex world? Or simply the pleasure of drawing bodies the artist is fascinated by: his fellow human beings, his very own kind!

Gaëtan de Seguin invites us to look closer, to see and hear the voices of these individuals, while also listening to the collective song of those who keep moving forward. His compositions resist rigid structures and divisions, instead celebrating coexistence and the strength that emerges from our connections. They suggest a world in which differences do not separate us, but enrich us, and where working hand in hand can lead to mutual understanding and shared success. Ultimately, the J+ series is all of this: a fragment of humanity, endlessly renewed, a celebration of individuality within togetherness, and a reminder that freedom, friendship and solidarity continue to guide us, day after day.