Semiose

[Offsite 🐱]⁠
Cat People. Des Artistes et des Chats⁠ [Of Artists and Cats]⁠
group show with Oli Epp & Laurent Le Deunff, curated by Marc Bembekoff⁠
La Galerie, Noisy Le Sec (FR)⁠
Until December 31, 2025⁠

More info: urls.fr/A885xQ
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Cat People takes an ironic look at the complex relationship between humans and cats, drawing on themes from Jacques Derrida’s The Animal That Therefore I Am. Referencing Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 film, the exhibition presents works that explore cats as reassuring companions but also as unsettling mirrors of societal anxieties. Through diverse approaches—from anthropomorphism to kitsch—it reflects on what the feline figure reveals about us.⁠
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Oli Epp⁠
Ninth Life, 2022⁠
Polyester resin painted⁠
273 × 460 × 180 cm / 107 1/2 × 181 1/8 × 70 7/8 in. ⁠
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Artists list: Adel Abdessemed, M’barka Amor, Amber Andrews, Sophia Balagamwala, Sarah Nefissa Belhadjali, Pierre Bellot, Marcel Broodthaers, Nina Childress, Ann Craven, Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann, Claire Guetta, Charles Hascoët, Andy Holden, Armand Jalut, Louise Luc Kheloui, Rayane Mcirdi, Damir Očko, Alain Séchas, Mayura Torii, Yves Trémorin & Sarah Tritz⁠
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[New Publication 📘]⁠
Xie Lei⁠
with essays by Claire Staebler & Florian Gaîté, and a conversation between Xie Lei & Martin Bethenod⁠.⁠
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120-page book, French / English⁠
ISBN 9782377390809⁠
29⁠€⁠
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Available at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, at Semiose gallery and online: urls.fr/tuXdJ9
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This first monography dedicated to the artist Xie Lei provides an overview that seeks to shed light on the mystery surrounding his painting. Through its essays and interviews, an extensive portfolio, reference works and a plethora of bibliographic and iconographic content, it enables us to explore the origins of Xie Lei’s work, its evolution, its prominent features and its ambiguity. This publication yields inferences–perhaps–and more surely, allows us to take measure of the troubled situations into which the artist’s painting projects us. Discreetly related to literary and cinematic memories, or plucked from the deep crucible of his feelings, these images explore desires and obsessions, as secret as they are universal. ⁠
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Featured: Claire Staebler, FlorianGaite & MartinBethenod⁠
Editing: Laetitia Chauvin⁠�
Graphic design: Jean-Philippe Bretin⁠
Studio views shot by Esmire & Erwan
Translation: Chris Atkinson

Philemona Williamson⁠
Lopsided⁠
Until October 11, 2025⁠
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“Standing up to bullying, standing firm in the face of injustice, ‘making good trouble’ are all a given when confronted with the inhumanity that seems on the rise.” — Philemona Williamson⁠
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Philemona Williamson⁠
Shall Not Be Moved, 2025⁠
Oil on canvas⁠
50,8 × 40,6 × 2,5 cm / 20 × 16 × 1 in. ⁠
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📸 Aurélien Mole

[Offsite 💦]⁠
Biennale d'Issy: L’Eau Intranquille ⁠
with Amélie Bertrand, curated by Sophie Deschamps Causse & Anne Malherbe⁠
Musée français de la carte à jouer, Issy (FR)⁠
September 17 - November 9, 2025⁠

More info: urls.fr/o0NGV3
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The Issy Biennale, founded in 1995, celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025 as a major event in contemporary art, showcasing around sixty emerging and established artists from France and abroad. Each edition is centered on a theme, and this year’s—The Restless Water—invites poetic and political reflections on water as a vital, unstable, and symbolic force.⁠
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Amélie Bertrand⁠
Arcane Tapestry, 2024⁠
Acrylic on paper mounted on aluminium⁠
150 × 120 cm / 59 1/16 × 47 1/4 in.

Laurent Proux⁠
The Nature Poem⁠
Until October 11, 2025⁠
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Discover the exhibition online: urls.fr/GyhJPt
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“Often, with Laurent Proux’s painted bodies, we are not quite sure who owns which limb; there is an overall delightful confusion or a sort of organic pooling. The bodies made available come together and hybridise. Plugging in on each other, connecting their emotions via a caress or an embrace, they escape conventional desire-induced projections. Something from the Mannerist legacy runs through these pictures, namely in these particularly extravagant melees of bodies reminiscent, for example, of Bronzino’s in An Allegory with Venus and Cupid (c. 1545, National Gallery, London). [...]” — Jérôme Duwa⁠
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Laurent Proux⁠
Kaleidoscope, 2025⁠
Oil on canvas⁠
184 × 140 cm / 72 7/16 × 55 1/8 in. ⁠
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📸 Rebecca Fanuele⁠, Aurélien Mole