MY ARTWORK

At the beginning was the Shapeless, then came the Verb, then the crucible, Athanor. Then the Beings arrived of themselves, certainly attracted by the incantations of my painting... I do not dare to imagine what will occur after... Will they leave the canvas?

Agnex

« If one can say it, why paint it? » Francis Bacon
« If one can paint it, why say it? » Agnex

BIOGRAPHY

Agnex was born in Paris in 1961. She graduated from the Esmod School in 1981. After having been simultaneously a fashion designer and fashion teacher, she has concentrated on painting.

She is interested in philosophy, esotericism, feng shui, karmic astrology, quantum physics, Jung, etc.

She lives and works in France, on Arcachon Bay, near the city of Bordeaux.


Solo exhibitions

2007 : Maison Louis David, Andernos les bains, France
2005 : l'Atelier Gallery, Cannes, France
2005 : l'Atelier Gallery, Arcachon, France
2005 : Wine Museum « Vinorama », Bordeaux, France
2004 : Tatry Gallery, Bordeaux, France
2003 : Forum des Arts, Talence, France


Collective exhibitions

2008 : Salon Figuration Critique, Lyon, France
2007 : Salon d' Automne, La Grande Motte, France
2007 : "Anima Fortis", Fort l'Ecluse, France
2007 : Salon Figuration Critique, Lyon, France
2006 : galerie du Chai du Terral, Saint jean de Vedas, France  
2006 : Salon des Indépendants, Paris, France
2006 : galerie Art7, Auvillar, France
2005 : Biennale Internazionale dell' Arte Contemporanea, Firenze, Italy
2005 : Maison Louis David, Andernos, France
2005 : Grupo Virtuart Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
2004 : Agora Gallery, New York, USA
2004 : l'Atelier Gallery, Cannes, France


Publications

2007 : éditions Bunker, livre moins un


AGNEX AGNÈS POINTIER,
by Ileana Cornea, art critic, author of a Raymond Hains biography Paris, may 2005

When Agnès Pointier decides to express herself in the language of abstract painting, the world looks like the upheaval after a volcano has erupted. She works with texture, seeking its hidden side. Like a miner scrutinizing the bowels of the earth, she goes looking for the nest of secret impulses.

It is no accident that the goddesses that inspire her are dark Lilith, who changes her eyes as she pleases and gives poison milk to children, and Aphrodite, the beauty so desired by men and artists. "Come back d'Aphrodite" is the title of one of her paintings, but maybe while waiting for another. Agnex Agnes creates a saturnine and cavernous world that is sometimes aquatic, a beginning point that is still chaotic, something like the original state from which something begins. Here titled paintings, such as "Athanor", give a name to this moment. This word takes us back to an alchemist's laboratory in the Middle Ages and the secrets of his craft. Athanor comes from Arabic, which in turn comes from the Greek word "athanatos", meaning "immortal," explains William Salmon in his 1645 Hermetic Dictionary. This was the name of a cylinder containing coal used to feed the fire of the oven in which the philosopher's stone was prepared. Similarly, her painting entitled "Graal" ("Grail") conveys the notion of crucible. This time, a dish is actually glued to the middle of the painting, from which round seeds overflow. In "Tu seras un Autre" ("You Will Be Someone Else"), it looks as though you can see the child's embryo in the mother's uterus. In "Aum" ("Om"), you can imagine listening to the primordial sound of Buddhist monks. The artist translates this sound in a small oil painting of lettrist inspiration, where she writes this word in green on a background of cramped, superimposed black capital letters that give an auditory impression of vibration. Her search for images is not burdened by symbols. She is more interested in the clash between colors and texture than the lyrical obscurity of signs. She looks for some sort of elixir inside tangible things.

When one is aware of Agnex Agnes Pointier's experience in the world of fashion, it is amusing to see that her interest in alchemy is maybe is not as accidental as all that. A word like "cosmetic," for instance, comes from alchemy. This adjective, originating from the Greek work "kosmos" (cosmos), turns into kosmêtiké as a noun (implying tekhné, or "art"), meaning "the art of dressing in finery." In his book entitled "Alchemy and Alchemist," (Hachette, Paris, 1960), Luis Figuier quotes a famous alchemist called Isaac L'Hollandais, whom he considers the creator of precious artificial stones.

Some seekers recognize each other and develop esoteric relationships. Agnex Agnes Pointier is one of them. The only difference is that she has decided to initiate herself into the hidden aspects of life via painting.

Ileana Cornea, Paris, may 2005