The Drawer, A New Generation of Drawing
from 6 December 2024 to 1 February 2025Exhibition
from December 6, 2024,
to February 1, 2025
Opening
Thursday, December 5, 2024,
at 6:00 pm
Hôtel des Arts TPM
236 Boulevard Maréchal Leclerc, 83000 Toulon
In 2024, the villa Noailles, in partnership with the Toulon Provence Méditerranée Metropolis and The Drawer magazine, is launching an event dedicated to the emerging young drawing scene.
For this first edition, the exhibition at the Hôtel des Arts TPM showcases a selection of works, most of which were published last June in The Drawer magazine, Vol. 24, Under 25, featuring the work of about thirty fourth- and fifth-year art school students from France and abroad.
Curated by Barbara Soyer and Sophie Toulouse, and set by designer Joachim Jirou-Najou, the exhibition presents an overview, offering a snapshot of drawing today, as it is thought and practiced in 2024.
How are students drawing today?
With what tools?
To what ends?
What world(s) are they depicting?
Celebrating the richness of contemporary drawing, increasingly seen in the form of installations, the exhibition explores the motifs that fuel it and highlights the notable place of intimacy and collectivity in the creations and narratives produced. Oscillating between lightheartedness and gravity, the drawings by these young artists emerge as attempts to connect themselves to the world, giving personal stories a collective significance, offering a way to counteract the misfortunes and stagnation of our time. This exhibition feels like a journey through the drawing and moods of the moment, where permeability takes shape, and connections are reinvented, creating new scenarios.
Drawing emerges as a space of freedom, healing, distancing, and transformation for the younger generation.
ABOUT The Drawer
The Drawer is an editorial and curatorial platform founded by Sophie Toulouse and Barbara Soyer. Since 2011, it has published the eponymous drawing magazine, bringing together a selection of artists around a common theme each semester. To date, 24 volumes have been published, creating a unique editorial collection focused on contemporary drawing.
Since 2017, The Drawer has also published monographs and artist books, including Joie
and That’s all Folks by Caroline Rennequin (2024 and 2021), Les Dinosaures végétariens and Inventaire by Lamarche-Ovize (2023 and 2017), Feelings on Felt by Léa Belooussovitch (2021), Girrrland by Frédérique Loutz (2021), Fiat Lux by Pierre Seinturier (2021), >°GuΣ by Grégoire Alexandre & Christophe Brunnquell (2020), Memory Lines by Stéphane Manel (2019), and Désordre by Gil Lesage (2018).
The Drawer also curates monographic and collective exhibitions dedicated to showcasing drawing in its various forms, including “Les Choses” (2013), “Post-it notes - Paul Davis” (2014) at galerie du jour agnès b in Paris, “Heroes” (2016), “Ladies Only” (2019), and “Modes et travaux” (2020) at Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois in Paris.
Dany Albiach,
lives and works in Nice, 1999
Gabrielle Alexandre,
lives and works in Marseille, 1999
Lucia Augé,
lives and works in Nantes, 1999
Azad Avaguian-Eurdekian,
lives and works in Brussels, 1999
Léna Bédague,
lives and works between Aix-en-Provence
and Marseille, 2001
Chloé Inès Berrady,
lives and works in Marseille, 1996
Perrine Boudy,
lives and works in Marseille, 1995
Léonie My Linh Campion,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
Marguerite Canguilhem,
lives and works in Brussels, 2000
Alix Cassagnes,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Antoine Conde,
lives and works in Paris, 1997
Alaïa Etchegoin,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
Anaïs Fontanges,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Claire Gitton,
lives and works in Romainville, 1999
Elias Hosni,
lives and works in Marseille, 2000
Maëlle Ledauphin,
lives and works in Le Mans, 1999
Lucien Lejeune,
lives and works in Marseille, 2000
Lucie Lozano,
lives and works in Paris, 1999
Lucas Mathieu (Caroub),
lives and works in Marseille, 1998
Sordna-Rémy Neves,
lives and works in Lyon, 2000
Fedor Pliskin,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Cléo Robert,
lives and works in Quimper, 2001
Zadig Robin,
lives and works in Marseille, 2001
Karim Saidi,
lives and works in Paris
Simon Thouément,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Léa Toutain,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
Elise Weber,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
Dany Albiach,
lives and works in Nice, 1999.
In the style of figurative self-portraits, the meditative and spontaneous works on paper by Dany Albiach—an artist who graduated in 2024 from villa Arson in Nice and also practices painting, sculpture, and writing—reflect his inner states. These works help him understand and make sense of the world around him.
Sans titre, graphite, colored pencil on paper, 50 × 65 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Gabrielle Alexandre,
lives and works in Marseille, 1999
Working on multiple mediums (paper, wallpaper, textile, video, etc.), Gabrielle Alexandre’s drawings reflect her adolescence in a rural setting through installations. Using the female gaze and puppetry, she attempts to trigger a process of repairing/re-creating her story. She also questions the influence of fiction, especially pop culture, on our behaviors.
Untitled, series of motifs for fabric print, pen, ink, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Lucia Augé,
lives and works in Nantes, 1999
A graduate of the École des Arts-Déco in Paris, Lucia Augé draws inspiration from 1970s children’s illustrations to tell stories, sometimes in the form of comic strips. Her papers come to life through colored ink, watercolor, and collage. Noticed at the last Angoulême Festival in the Young Talents category, the young artist is currently working on her first animated short film.
L’homme a donné des noms à tous les animaux 2, ink on paper, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist.
Azad Avaguian-Eurdekian,
lives and works in Brussels, 1999
Azad Avaguian-Eurdekian, a graduate of La Cambre in Brussels, creates drawings that engage with space, often in the form of monumental installations. His work involves the arrangement of colored sheets of paper in various formats, on which the artist traces a continuously evolving repertoire of signs in ink. His pieces serve as large visual poems. “In this game played differently each time, the signs surround us and demand that we give them a singular meaning.”
View of the Master’s 1 exhibition, ENSAV La Cambre, LaVallée, Brussels, 2023. Inks on paper, variable dimensions.
Courtesy of the artist.
Léna Bédague,
lives and works between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, 2001
Primarily focused on drawing, Léna Bédague’s practice is deeply influenced by the collective and the present. Illustrated with the contributions of other students, friends, and invited collaborators, her Master’s thesis at the Beaux-Arts in Aix-en-Provence reflected the artist’s solidarity and the contemporary foundations of her work. Socially and politically engaged, Léna Bédague uses drawing as her main form of expression, with banners, placards, and posters as her favored mediums.
Page extracted from On rentrera qen on ora f1, Master’s thesis, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Chloé Inès Berrady,
lives and works in Marseille, 1996
“The need to decompose in order to recombine is intrinsic to my work. I need to (re)build a connection, to link my multiple experiences with a thread. I am interested in the urban fabrics in which I have evolved, surrounded by plural identities. Casablanca, the Parisian suburbs, Rennes, and now Marseille are cities I have lived in and that live within me.” These cities are the main motifs in the work of the artist, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Aix, who, through drawing, embroidery, and painting, aims to disrupt the sense of perception, to “suggest a new hybrid framework that reveals traces and tears without hesitation.”
Thé à la menthe, watercolor pencil, marker, acrylic, glitter, hemp threads, drawing paper, 29.7 × 48 cm, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist.
Perrine Boudy,
lives and works in Marseille, 1995
A graduate of Villa Arson in 2023, Perrine Boudy draws everywhere, all the time, and on all surfaces—ceramics, paper, walls, and floors. She draws inspiration from a fantasized vision of Greco-Roman civilization to create her own repertoire of shapes, blending decorative arts and fine arts.
View of the exhibition “Le Luxe I - Hommage à Matisse,” Hyperbien gallery, Montreuil, 2024.
Courtesy of the artist.
Léonie My Linh Campion,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
In 2023, Léonie My Linh Campion began the series Confessions. She transcribes text messages received or conversations with family members in pencil, vertically on calligraphy paper, sometimes accompanied by drawings. With great care, the young graduate of the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris intertwines writing, language, and drawing, allowing the intimate content of her texts to be read with distance, while giving the words a tangible materiality and memory.
Confessions oniriques, pencil on grid paper, 29.7 × 42 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Marguerite Canguilhem,
lives and works in Brussels, 2000
Marguerite Canguilhem aims to disturb the image and its legibility, giving it the complexity it holds through the techniques and textures she employs.
Her goal is to resize reality in order to reveal its strangeness or even its monstrosity. In the large-format paper works of this graduate from La Cambre in Brussels, which require numerous stages of creation, the viewer is challenged, invited to decode the final image and grasp its meaning and mystery.
Trip to Munich #3, oil, ink, glycerin on paper,
192 × 144 cm, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist.
Alix Cassagnes,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Alix Cassagnes accompanies her gender transition through the creation of a trousseau: heraldic motifs, technical drawings, silk prints, experiments, bobbin lace, embroidery, and tightly woven threads, among others, are all ways of revealing herself intimately and delicately, taking her place in the world. A graduate of the École des Arts-Déco in Paris, she is moving toward fashion this year.
Carreaux, graphite and colored pencils, 19.5 × 14.5 cm.
Courtesy of the artist.
![*Antoine Conde*,
lives and works in Paris, 1997
In his drawings, Antoine Conde accumulates and assembles pop images and intimate narratives, bringing to life collages drawn in graphite on paper, sometimes presented as installations. Playing with the functions and ways of displaying drawing, the young graduate of the Beaux-Arts and the Arts-Déco in Paris is currently exploring three-dimensional forms, experimenting with folding and origami techniques at different scales.
ANOTHER NIGHT CALL
[Encore un appel nocturne], graphite on paper, 18 x 12 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist. - © Villa Noailles Hyères](https://villanoailles.com/media/pages/expositions/the-drawer-une-nouvelle-generation-du-dessin/1928249cab-1731425581/conde-antoine-another-night-call-encore-un-appel-nocturne-2023-2048x2048.jpg)
Antoine Conde,
lives and works in Paris, 1997
In his drawings, Antoine Conde accumulates and assembles pop images and intimate narratives, bringing to life collages drawn in graphite on paper, sometimes presented as installations. Playing with the functions and ways of displaying drawing, the young graduate of the Beaux-Arts and the Arts-Déco in Paris is currently exploring three-dimensional forms, experimenting with folding and origami techniques at different scales.
ANOTHER NIGHT CALL
[Encore un appel nocturne], graphite on paper, 18 × 12 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Alaïa Etchegoin,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
Alaïa Etchegoin uses everything at her disposal to draw—oil pastels, dry pastels, gouaches, pencils… Her drawings take on a strange depth, almost like oil painting. The dreamlike and Art Deco universe of this graphic design graduate tells stories and creates magical worlds. Her drawings appear as if they have come straight out of a children’s fairy tale.
Zinzins From Nowhere, acrylic on paper and photomontage of digitally painted sculptures,
28 × 38 cm, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist.
Anaïs Fontanges,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Anaïs Fontanges throws nothing away, archives and recycles everything—the drawings she creates, the small objects she finds. “I would say my drawing practice is accumulative,” she says. Her drawing is an ecological gesture. The artist, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, mixes, accumulates, combines, and reinvents existing patterns, sometimes using a random image composition software. “Why create new images? There are already so many.”
Parchís, pencil, colored pencils, thermal printing, and collage on pink cardboard,
31 × 22.6 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Claire Gitton,
lives and works in Romainville, 1999
Created on more or less noble surfaces, influenced by popular images and references, as well as recurring, marked typography, Claire Gitton’s marker and pen drawings have an immediate visual impact, with compositions that contradict their apparent simplicity. Practicing both drawing and painting, the artist, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, approaches the two practices without hierarchy, treating them equally, with a true porosity of styles and writings.
Rosa, pen on paper, 2024.
Courtesy of the artist.
Elias Hosni,
lives and works in Marseille, 2000
Elias Hosni embraces a DIY aesthetic, resembling a digital wasteland, and creates drawings that reflect the plasticity of the digital world. His installations, akin to a “Diogenes-style reclamation,” are part of the same movement and reveal an ever-evolving imagination, where hybridity and mutation prevail. It is the alliance of drawing, technology, and craftsmanship.
Digital drawing from the thesis clic3, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Maëlle Ledauphin,
lives and works in Le Mans, 1999
A graduate of the Beaux-Arts of Le Mans, Maëlle Ledauphin describes her drawing as analogical. It works through the accumulation and association of ideas. These surreal hybridizations are played out anew each time she arranges them on the wall.
The use of oil pastels, paint, and collage blurs the boundaries between mediums: “They serve compositions of self-contained spaces, where the outside world doesn’t exist; drawing holds them together as a sentence does.”
Calculis, oil pastel, graphite, and colored pencil on paper, 100 × 123 cm, 2022.
© Kristien Deam.
Courtesy of the artist.
Lucien Lejeune,
lives and works in Marseille, 2000
The drawing practice of this graduate from the Beaux-Arts of Marseille is closely tied to the craft of engraving, a medium he still explores today, along with ceramics, thus translating his graphic universe into three-dimensional form. His drawings, a blend of architecture, ornamentation, and sacred narratives, give rise to compositions detached from any specific time, melancholic evocations of the end of the world.
Vision of a Vessel for Colored Drawings, markers on paper, 29.7 × 42 cm, 2024.
Courtesy of the artist.
Lucie Lozano,
lives and works in Paris, 1999
A graduate of the Arts-Déco in Paris, Lucie Lozano practices both drawing and weaving. On one hand, she creates drawings with markers in notebooks, where the front and back tell different versions of the same image. On the other, she brings forth images or words
in woven pieces that gradually reveal themselves, appearing like fragile and fantastical apparitions. Her work is an exploration of perception and distortion, with ghosts playing a central role.
Hand-stitched Notebook, alcohol markers, ballpoint pen, 21 × 14.5 cm, 2022.
Courtesy of the artist.
Lucas Mathieu (Caroub),
lives and works in Marseille, 1998
Moving away from observation and figurative drawing, Lucas Mathieu (Caroub) has been seeking new forms of expression in his work. “I seek to express the poetry and relationships between the structures of the visible, whether they arise from the living, inanimate matter, or writing,” says the artist, trained at the Arts-Déco in Paris. Through an automatic creative process, he reuses their rhythms and underlying rules to compose intimate and vibrant small graphic universes.
Page from an Automatic Drawing Notebook, mixed media on paper, 15 × 21 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Sordna-Rémy Neves,
lives and works in Lyon, 2000
Whether drawn with a pen, created digitally, traced on large fabrics, or tattooed on the artist’s skin, the monsters and satyrs that make up the figures in Sordna-Rémy Neves’ drawings possess the cathartic and identificatory power of self-portraits. “My work is a form of autobiography, a ‘me’ that could serve a plural representation,” the artist explains. He is the recipient of the Dufraine Prize from Ensba Lyon in 2024.
Untitled, digital drawing, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Fedor Pliskin,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Fedor Pliskin stages his digital double, which he endlessly reimagines in various situations. Both graphic, technological, and low-key, this character serves a personal, biting, yet joyful narrative. Continuing his research and experiments, Fedor Pliskin will begin his sixth year
at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in the fall of 2024.
Beau gosse, graphite and laser print on Japanese-style paper, 42 × 29.7 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Cléo Robert,
lives and works in Quimper, 2001
Cléo Robert enjoys soft, warm, and intimate surfaces (duvets, pillows, handkerchiefs…) to host her drawn forms and figures. In her sketchbooks, the artist, a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Quimper, stages women with their eyes closed, symbolizing both trust and a refusal to confront reality, thus pointing out the incoherence and cognitive biases that surround each of us.
Carnet, alcohol markers, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Zadig Robin,
lives and works in Marseille, 2001
A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts of Marseille, Zadig Robin draws with India ink the real and imagined life of Marseille’s youth. Landscapes and suspended moments surrounded by friends, dogs, and utilitarian objects are traced on paper or PVC strips reminiscent of warehouse or construction sites. It’s a way to “fictionalize” reality to make it more bearable. The mundane becomes the subject, a setting in which it’s pleasant
to live, an Endless Summer.
Sans titre, India ink,
150 × 200 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Karim Saidi,
lives and works in Paris
Karim Saidi does not draw. He engraves and paints. Inspired notably by the works of Walter Crane and Aubrey Beardsley, his latest series of engravings, “The Gain of Truth,” presented at his graduation from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, follows the adventures of fauns and young men with their genitalia masked by flowers, moving through an idyllic and liquid
nature, glorified by the artist’s graphic and psychedelic motifs.
Diving Deep, series “The Watery Sphere”, aquatint and etching, 22 × 29 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Simon Thouément,
lives and works in Paris, 1998
Simon Thouément thinks of drawing in motion. He creates short films, music videos, animates his travel notebooks, and more. Created for his degree in animation cinema at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023, his film Géant, featured on the cover of The Drawer #24, was drawn digitally and animated with a printed frame to create contrast with the characters, including the famous giant.
Image from Géant, animated triptych, 3’ 20’’, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.
Léa Toutain,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
Nominated with three other students for the 2024 Prix du dessin contemporain des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Léa Toutain practices both observational and inventive drawing. Created from life or in the studio, in sketchbooks or on paper, her drawings “navigate between the finished and the unfinished.” The young artist’s work is focused on the attention to light—”seeing how things appear and how to account for light on a surface.”
Lumière, atelier Marion, colored pencil, 65 × 42 cm, 2024.
Courtesy of the artist.
Elise Weber,
lives and works in Paris, 2000
In July, for her graduation from the École des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Elise Weber presented a series of paintings on wood and canvas titled Le jour vide ses images. Among the works was an oil on paper, Bedroom 4, with a bluish palette, alongside other drawings by the artist, who enjoys depicting still bodies, at rest or asleep —characters in a “silent theater” unfolding on paper.
Réveils, oil on paper, 21 × 29.7 cm, 2023.
Courtesy of the artist.