Synopsis Collective Exhibition

Presented from December 15, 2022 to January 14, 2023 at Galerie Catherine Pennec, this group exhibition brought together François Bardet, Elisabeth Carli, Frédéric Nolleau, and Sylvie Pons around a shared intention: to experiment, to shift perspectives, and to open new perceptual spaces.

Four visual languages, four materials, four ways of inhabiting the world were placed in dialogue. François Bardet’s light-filled landscapes suspended time, suggesting silent narratives. Elisabeth Carli’s compositions intertwined collage and layered painting, bringing forth fragments of stories poised between reality and imagination.

With Frédéric Nolleau, the photographic image was altered, reworked, and transformed: through layering and erasure, it moved beyond its original state to become a field of exploration. In counterpoint, Sylvie Pons shaped clay as a living surface, working with tensions, rhythms, and contrasts to reveal its inner pulse.

Throughout the exhibition, the works engaged in dialogue without seeking uniformity. They created echoes, contrasts, and pauses. The viewer’s gaze shifted, invited to move between forms, embracing both rupture and resonance.

The exhibition thus outlined a space of encounter, where the diversity of practices gave rise to a sensitive experience, leaving each viewer free to project their own narratives.

Synopsis of Babu Bommel’s solo exhibition 

The Artist

Born in Dunkirk in 1938, Babu Bommel began his professional life teaching drawing and photography. His work was featured in two major exhibitions in Paris—at the Centre International de Séjour and Fnac Montparnasse (titled Les nouvelles photographiques). After illustrating books, including Le Hata Yoga bien tempéré (which won the PUF Graphic Art Prize), he specialised in medical iconography and later established a cancer prevention centre, where he served as head of department.

Upon settling in La Pointe Courte, Sète, he returned to his first love—painting—and has since been prolifically creating in his Montpellier studio.

An Encounter

It all began with bursts of colour, a shared emotion. In Montpellier, my daughter discovered captivating canvases at a friend’s home: deep characters, silent stories, a vibrant palette. The artist, mysterious, was known only as “Babo” or “Babu,” with no further explanation. Intrigued, she sent me photos. Moved by the pictorial energy, I set out to find the man behind the works.

My search led me to La Pointe Courte, Sète. On a blog, I found traces of Babu Bommel—painter, photographer, tango dancer. A message, a call, and the artist’s voice replied: “I’ve never wanted to exhibit in a gallery.” I was about to open my own gallery, so I told him about my project. A meeting was arranged. With my daughter and a fine bottle of dry white wine, we stepped into Babu’s world—and there, we discovered two beautiful souls and a thousand wonders.

This was the beginning of a remarkable encounter. In November 2022, and again in May 2023, Galerie Catherine Pennec presented a selection of his works, from recent creations to landmark pieces from his career. Landscapes, figures, still lifes: each canvas is a dive into deep blues, mysterious greens, warm ochres—a palette evoking the ocean depths, shafts of light, and dreamlike atmospheres. His bronze sculptures, so moving in their presence (The White Lady, Don Quixote, …), found homes with collectors, allowing me to occasionally greet them again—always with a pang of longing for their absence, but comforted to know they are in good hands.

Synopsis OUZANI’s Exhibition

Marking the opening of Galerie Catherine Pennec on 6 October 2022, the inaugural exhibition brought together works by the painter OUZANI and welcomed over one hundred guests for what proved to be a truly memorable evening.

The exhibition presents the work of Mélik Ouzani, born in 1942 in Vichy, whose distinctive path led him from a technical career in industry to a full commitment to painting from the 1970s onwards. This decisive shift, notably reinforced by a stay in New York in 1974, laid the foundations for an independent artistic practice, developed beyond established conventions.

OUZANI’s work is characterised by an energetic graphic language and a deliberately restrained palette, favouring primary colours, strong black and white contrasts, and the integration of text within the pictorial space. His swift and instinctive gesture shapes compositions where figures, signs and words coexist. English and French intertwine, forming a visual language that extends meaning beyond representation.

Resisting classification, OUZANI distances himself from movements with which his work is sometimes associated. Neither abstract nor aligned with the so-called “new figurative” or urban art, his practice asserts its singularity. It is informed by major artistic figures – from Matisse to Dubuffet, from Miró to Calder – yet remains resolutely independent. This freedom is also expressed through a wide range of formats and materials, from canvas to large-scale wall works.

Exhibited in France and internationally, his work reflects a sustained commitment to painting as a space for direct expression. With this inaugural exhibition, the artist reconnects with the energy of public presentation, engaging collectors, informed viewers and passers-by alike.