Hugo Ruyant's Third Solo Show at Michel Rein Paris Explores Pastoral Displacement
Hugo Ruyant's third solo exhibition, titled Pastoral Melody, is currently showcased at the Michel Rein Gallery in Paris. The collection features artworks characterized by subtle shifts in form, where familiar images fluctuate and new symbols arise. Color plays a pivotal role, altering subjects and creating an ethereal illumination that detaches the images from straightforward interpretation. The pastoral theme is in suspension: the shepherd fades away, while the flock transforms into distinct portraits, emphasizing individuality. This reflects the fragmented certainties of modern society, probing the notion of personal identity within a directionless community. Among the displayed pieces is Starry night (BW), 2026, a charcoal and acrylic work on canvas measuring 46 x 55 cm, illustrating fragile constellations.
Key facts
- Hugo Ruyant's third solo show at Michel Rein Gallery, Paris, is titled Pastoral Melody.
- The exhibition features paintings that use displacement and thresholds, with recognisable forms that waver in certainty.
- Colour structures uncertainty, transforming subjects and generating a mental light that distances motifs from descriptive reading.
- The pastoral motif is suspended: the shepherd disappears, the flock ceases to be a mass, and each sheep becomes a portrait.
- This displacement resonates with contemporary societies producing new figures of authority and fragmented certainties.
- Paintings of star-filled skies depict imaginary constellations and maps without territories, creating a fragile cosmology.
- Ruyant's work strips ancient forms of their original function, testing myths rather than reactivating them.
- An affinity with Paul Thek is claimed, based on unsettling symbolic systems to recover a more direct experience of the world.
- The exhibition includes Starry night (BW), 2026, charcoal and acrylic on canvas, 46 x 55 cm.
Entities
Artists
- Hugo Ruyant
- Paul Thek
Institutions
- Michel Rein Gallery
- Michel Rein
Locations
- Paris
- France