Brigitte Aubignac and Nazanin Pouyandeh present contrasting figurative paintings at Musée Paul Valéry

Musée Paul Valéry in Sète presents a dual exhibition featuring painters Brigitte Aubignac and Nazanin Pouyandeh until March 2, 2025. Curated by museum director Stéphane Tarroux, the show occupies separate spaces for each artist with individual catalogues. Pouyandeh, born in 1981, displays colorful canvases from 2000 onward depicting ethnically diverse young bodies in love, conflict, or religious scenes, often referencing art history through fragments and self-portraiture. Her Iranian-born, French-trained work includes pieces like "Brune en Lucrèce" (2024), an oil on canvas measuring 160 x 200 cm from the Fondation Francès. Aubignac, born in France in 1957, presents paintings exploring bodily unease, featuring adolescents, statues, and women confronting aging, culminating in a series on insomnia. Both artists address creation's challenges—Pouyandeh through meta-painting and Aubignac through symbolic struggles. The museum overlooks the Mediterranean, with Pouyandeh's work on the first floor.