CLAUDINE DRAI, CLAUDE DE SORIA, D'ÂMES

Curators : Olivier Kaeppelin and Antoine Clavé

Clavé Fine Art has the great pleasure to bring together for the first time two artists, two works, in the exhibition « Claudine Drai, Claude de Soria, D’âmes ».

It was in 2019, during the group exhibition « Atmo(sphères) » presented at the Jeanne Bucher Jaeger gallery, that I first encountered Claude de Soria’s work. I was then impressed and moved by these Boules made of cement, raw, imposing, almost monumental, sitting on their bases at the heart of the gallery space.

Claudine Drai’s world, however, has always accompanied me in my life. My earliest memory of it must be of that October 2002 « Nuit Blanche » during which Claudine’s compositions were being shown at the Mairie du XVIIIe in Paris. I was then nothing more than a fascinated child, mesmerised by these dreamlike characters, these mysterious and immaterial transparencies, these souls.

Then ensued a series of events that can only be explained by destiny. The desire for an exhibition, a dialogue between two women that have dedicated their work to a specific medium, cement for De Soria, paper for Drai. The sharing of this idea to Claudine, a Sunday afternoon in her studio, and her discovery of De Soria’s work. Finally, the coincidental, yet still so natural, addition of Olivier Kaeppelin to this project.

We therefore present this unprecedented dialogue through the following exhibition « Claudine Drai, Claude de Soria, D’âmes », June 10th to July 13th 2021 at Clavé Fine Art.