Zaza Minssen      

Born in Loctudy, Brittany, France, lives and works in her studio facing the sea in the peninsula of Ile-Tudy.

Minssen is mainly self-taught. She has been painting  for about 15 years. Her influences are Pop Art,  American and German Expressionism. Rauschenberg, Kieffer, Richter, Twombly and Rothko have been great sources of inspiration for her practice and work.

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          SELECTED  EXHIBITIONS

     2008 Living with Art gallery , Soho New York, group show Art and Fashion in collaboration with Gueguen Gallery ,November

              Work on display at Poltrona New York. Design and furniture shop. December 08

    2008  Gueguen Gallery London, May, 'Not ready to wear'

     2007 Atelier Minssen, Ile-Tudy (France)
     2006 Gallery Patricia Oranin, Pont-l’Abbe (Brittany)
     2005 Art in hotels de Charme et de Caractere, Saint-Malo, Paris
     2004 Gallery Dollita, Quiberon (Morbihan)
     2003 Group exhibition Fort de Sainte-Marine (Brittany)
     2002 Gallery l’Aquarelle Crozon-Morgat (Brittany)
     2001 Gallery Sties Croneberg, Germany
     2000 Gallery Le Gai Sabot, Audierne (France)
            Chateau de Pont-l’Abbe (France)
     1999 Cultural Center le Triskell, Pont-l’Abbe (France)
     1998 Maison de la Pointe, Ile-Tudy (France)
     1998 Gallery 9, Paimpol (Cote d’Armor)

Zaza Minssen also works on a commission basis for private and corporate clients. Please contact Marine Gueguen Strage for information. A selection of recent works is also available for sale.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have been interested in painting isolated objects taken out of their context for several years. I work on the representation of objects and extract them from their environment to give them new life.
 
I particularly like working on the theme of fashion as a way to express ideas on femininity and our relationship between fashion and beauty. I use references from well-known designers in my paintings to create a dialogue between art and fashion.

I like questioning myself and make people question themselves about the idea of surface of things: Are clothes a window on our inner desires? What does nowadays the idea of beauty mean in art and in life?

Experimenting new techniques drive my practice. I constantly challenge myself by using new ingredients and ways of working the surface of my paintings. This enables me to create a unique visual language that blurs the frontiers between different visual worlds.

My collage technique creates a dialogue between the paint and the canvas. Waxing, gluing, scratching, mixing and pealing the fabric and the paint in order to reveal a second skin is an exciting moment of pleasure. At the same time it is an aggressive gesture similar to the act of breaking your own toy.

Questioning the relationship between form and colours as well as challenging the notion of drawing, my paintings are an invitation to awaken our senses as well as our relationship with the objects that surround our daily world.