Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey &

Pierre Matter

JEAN-PIERRE ROC-ROUSSEY & PIERRE MATTER

Préface2014 has been a fantastic year for us at Opera Gallery as we celebrate our 20th anniversary. To end this year of celebrations, and in honor of our 20th anniversary, we are excited to present Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey and Pierre Matter, and to once again welcome back the extremely creative Joe Spinelli for an exciting collaboration that marries art and fashion.

The sci-fi filled worlds of Pierre Matter are something quite unique to the artist. Stemming from his childhood imaginings, Matter’s works practically walk out from his cognitive conjuring into a proposed reality of mechanic/organic Hybrid creations. The evolution of mechanical reliance has progressed so rapidly, that it has hindered mankind as much as it has helped us to progress. Speaking of humanity’s reliance on our mechanised world - be it external or integrated to man – technology and machinery have become so essential to mankind’s survival that it is practically inherent, built into us as an extension of our mortal being.

Roc-Roussey’s series on Messengers presents in baroque aesthetics a realm of imagined figures that dominate their canvas’, graceful figures cascade across natural landscapes; vibrantly dressed subjects test the bounds of realistic proportion with slender, elongated torsos that lead down to generously exaggerated hips and limbs. Mythical legends dance around their confines, Goddesses recline in their surroundings while Huntresses forage the wilderness atop noble steeds and armored elephants. Roc-Roussey’s figures perform like sirens, tempting their viewers to come in closer and gaze upon their beauty.

After the success of the previous collaboration with Raffles Institute of Design, Opera Gallery has once again invited Mr Joe Spinelli; principal and programme director of Raffles Design Institute, to create a series of ten garments aligned to the styles and aesthetics of Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey and Pierre Matter, these garments will be debuted exclusively at the opening of the exhibition.

Stéphane Le PelletierDirector Asia Pacific

Opera Gallery

Gilles DyanFounder and ChairmanOpera Gallery Group

Born near Paris, France, in 1951.Has been a member of the Figurative Art Critic.Member of the Salon d’Automne Art Critic Society since 1988.Currently lives and works between Paris and the South of France.

AwardsTown of Pontoise award, FranceTown of Colombes award, FranceFirst prize for portrait, Deauville, FranceTown of La Rochelle award, FranceCharente-Maritime Regional Council award (1993), FranceTown of Taverny award (1992), France

Paris fairsSalon des Indépendants (The Independent Artist’s Fair)Salon des Artistes Français (French Artists’ Fair)Salon d’Automne (Autumn Fair)Salon Comparaisons

ExhibitionsPermanently exhibited at Opera Gallery Group: Paris, Geneva, Monaco, London, New York, Miami,Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Dubai.

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The Woman, the Myth, the Mystery, Opera Gallery, Dubai, UAE

Apsaras, Opera Gallery, Paris, France

Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey & Nicola Rosini di Santi, Opera Gallery, SingaporeJean-Pierre Roc-Roussey & Nicola Rosini di Santi, Opera Gallery, Dubai, UAE

Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey & Inbar Tolla, Opera Gallery, Singapore

Lita Cabellut & Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, Opera Gallery, Dubai, UAEGuest of honour, L’art sans temps, Théoule-sur-Mer, France

Viviane Cisinski & Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, Opera Gallery, Hong Kong

Johanne Corno & Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, Opera Gallery, New York, USAOrdrupgaard Museum, Copenhagen, DenmarkJean-François Larrieu, Mauro Corda & Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, Opera Gallery, Seoul, KoreaSport in Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing, ChinaSport in Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, ChinaSport in Art, Gallery of Luxun Art Academy, Shenyang, ChinaSport in Art, RCM The Museum of Modern Art, Nanjing, China

Sport in Art, Art Museum of Guangzhou Art Academy, Guangzhou, ChinaSport in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, ChinaJean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, Opera Gallery, Paris, France

Lita Cabellut & Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, Opera Gallery, London, UKOpera Gallery, Venice, Italy

Opera Gallery, Paris, FranceOpera Gallery, Hong Kong

Opera Gallery, Paris, FranceBunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

Galerie l’Orée du Rêve, La Rochelle, FranceMunicipal Art exhibitions, Pontoise; Taverny; Bouffemont; La Rochelle, France

Palais des Congrès, Royan, FranceLa Grande Arche, Paris, France

Château d’Homécourt, Homécourt, France

Galerie Béatrice Soulié, Paris, FranceRétrospective, Société Générale, Paris, FranceCentre Pablo Picasso, Nancy, France

Galerie Catherine Guérard, Paris, FranceHybern Castle, Prague, Czech RepublicChâteau de Saran, Chouilly, France

Rundetaarn, Copenhagen, DenmarkFestival hall, Biarritz, France

Dong Ha Gallery, Seoul, KoreaPoo Yong Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Santillana, SpainFrench Embassy, Washington, USAMons Museum, Mons, BelgiumTown halls in the 18th, 9th and 6th arrondissements, Paris, France

Tretakiov Gallery, Moscow, RussiaSaint Petersburg, Russia

Galerie Beauvau, Paris, France

Jean-PierreRoc-Roussey

JEAN-PIERRE ROC-ROUSSEY & PIERRE MATTER

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Grande messagère jauneOil on canvas • 162 x 130 cm - 63.8 x 51.2 in. • Price on request

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The Messengers

Claudie Roc-Roussey

Using art to present dreamlike characters to the world – such is Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey’s special gift, enhanced by the artist’s technical virtuosity. In the artist’s latest series, The

Messengers, the characters come alive, bursting from the canvas, poised on the backs of black and gold elephants; they leap and dance, these celestial, black magicians, arms stretching out to protect their precious missives from destruction. They tear into space, earth, water, and fire; triumphant over any obstacles, these messengers overcome the insurmountable. Their gentle countenances and wraith-like movements emanate a sense of reliability and unyielding loyalty.

These are Messengers with important orders to deliver; emissaries from another world accompanied by blue-feathered birds. These blue-feathered passerines are ambassadors of the ethereal messengers. Blue birds, with reference to the Chinese culture, have always been seen as fairies, immortal and heavenly messengers bearing omens. Like all things avian, the bird provides as a metaphor for liberation. Impervious to earthly constraints as simple as gravity, the sapphire creatures are able to seek havens, inaccessible to humans. Possibly, these azure birds could act as a motivation for humans to free themselves and find inner solace.

In ancient mythology, messengers were often women: the Celts depicted them as incredibly beautiful, with their nomadic tendencies striking feelings of love, longing, and melancholy. For the ancient Greeks, the messenger of the Gods was a Goddess named Iris. Iris was imagined as winged, swift, and nimble, with her beauty synonymous to the rainbow she personified.

Unraveling a work of Roc-Roussey’s, it is similar to experiencing a spiritual journey, like gazing on a Chinese “dream stone”, deciphering a landscape or journey in the stone and thereby inheriting immortality. To set one’s gaze on a Roc-Roussey is to venture into a world of luxuriously exuberant colours. His paintings spill with power and vigour, a breath-taking dynamism. Roc-Roussey’s vibrant, figurative creatures radiate a sense of immortality, seducing his viewers into the scenes of his artworks.

Such vitality is a result of the scintillating personality his characters exude, exploding from an imaginary backdrop drenched in light. The unique quality of his style of large, massive bodies of mythological subjects, enigmatic visages, flamboyant colours of both scenery and eccentric costumes, elegant and graceful poses, render Roc-Roussey as a quintessentially inventive artist. Nevertheless, his virtuosity is constantly seeking; searching for aspects of inventiveness, strength, and audacity. Roc-Roussey’s oeuvre proves to be spectacularly individualistic as the artist delves into neoclassic dreams and beauty with a refreshing surrealist edge. These elements combine to make Roc-Roussey a quintessentially original creator. But his virtuosity is constantly seeking, always worrying...

It feeds on invention, on strength and audacity. But this artwork is solitary indeed, and the artist is forever questioning himself while he ponders the beautiful, the dreamlike. His method, a mastering of lines and volumes, combined with the spontaneous genius of his drips and drops, the perfect splash, are Roc-Roussey’s immediately recognizable signatures.

His uplifting and optimistic style is in total contrast with the man’s melancholy demeanor, his eelings of inadequacy when facing the world. The sumptuous creations of his life’s work, filled with such extraordinary vivaciousness, stem from his rejection of a realistic world vision. His paintings echo the method of a true dreamer.

Faced with a world in which the thirst for pleasure and wealth compete with a desire for peace and harmony, and where this constant duality triggers an incessant, diffused anguish and uncertainty, we are assailed with contradictory messages delivered by prophets resembling machines that are more and more sophisticated; machines that turn us into beings who are perpetually alarmed, living in cities where the future remains uncertain, haunted by lingering violence. To escape from the increasing anxiety of metropolitan societies, we are drawn to the escapism offered in Roc-Roussey’s works. In his series The Messengers, Roc-Roussey’s empyreal subjects merge heaven, sea, and earth, transforming reveries into works of art.

JEAN-PIERRE ROC-ROUSSEY & PIERRE MATTER

Messagère rouge au sabre noirOil on canvas • 195 x 130 cm - 76.8 x 51.2 in. • Price on request

Messagère bleue au dragon d’orOil on canvas • 195 x 130 cm - 76.8 x 51.2 in. • Price on request

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Messagère au message cachéOil on canvas • 170 x 60 cm - 66.9 x 23.6 in. • Price on request

Messagère à l’éléphant traversant le fleuveOil on canvas • 114 x 195 cm - 44.9 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

Messagère cavalière en rougeOil on canvas • 130 x 195 cm - 51.2 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

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Petite messagère en jauneOil on canvas • 60 x 60 cm - 23.6 x 23.6 in. • Price on request

Ange messagère au caftan roseOil on canvas • 100 x 100 cm - 39.4 x 39.4 in. • Price on request

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Messagère de la Casa AzulOil on canvas • 195 x 130 cm - 76.8 x 51.2 in. • Price on request

Messagère cavalière ailéeOil on canvas • 130 x 195 cm - 51.2 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

Messagère au cheval rétifOil on canvas • 114 x 195 cm - 44.9 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

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Messagère au cheval bleuOil on canvas • 114 x 195 cm - 44.9 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

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Messagère cavalière IrisOil on canvas • 150 x 195 cm - 59.1 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

Ange messagère aux ailes d’orOil on canvas • 130 x 130 cm - 51.2 x 51.2 in. • Price on request

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Messagère bleue à la flècheOil on canvas • 170 x 60 cm - 66.9 x 23.6 in. • Price on request

Messagère de guerreOil on canvas • 150 x 195 cm - 59.1 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

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Messagère bleue au dragon d’or

Oil on canvas • 195 x 130 cm - 76.8 x 51.2 in.

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Messagère à l’éléphant caparaçonnéOil on canvas • 150 x 195 cm - 59.1 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

Messagère à l’éléphant bleuOil on canvas • 150 x 195 cm - 59.1 x 76.8 in. • Price on request

Born in Haut-Rhin departement, France, in 1964 Currently lives and works in Buhl, France

PierreMatterJEAN-PIERRE ROC-ROUSSEY & PIERRE MATTER

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Opera Gallery - Longines Master Slam, Hong Kong AFA Gallery SoHo, New York, USAOpera Gallery, Singapore

AFA Gallery SoHo, New York, USAOpera Gallery, SingaporeGalerie Clarus, Sologne, FranceChâteau de Belcastel, Aveyron, FranceLa Boîte noire, Tours, FranceL’Art au quotidien, Tours, France

Opera Gallery, Paris, France Galerie Hugues Pénot, Pornichet, France

Opera Gallery, Dubai, UAEOpera Gallery, Singapore

St’Art, Strasbourg, France

Opera Gallery, Singapore

Opera Gallery, New York, USASport in Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing, ChinaSport in Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, ChinaSport in Art, Gallery of Luxun Art Academy, Shenyang, ChinaSport in Art, RCM The Museum of Modern Art, Nanjing, ChinaContemporary Art fair, Shanghai, China

Sport in Art, Art Museum of Guangzhou Art Academy, Guangzhou, ChinaSport in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China Annual Shanghai International Exhibition of Sculptures, Shanghai, ChinaOpera Gallery, SingaporeFantasmagory, Epinal, FranceContemporary Art fair, Shanghai, China

Espace 110, Illzach, FranceContemporary Art fair, Shanghai, ChinaOpera Gallery, Hong Kong

Shanghai Sculpture Space, Shanghai, ChinaContemporary Art fair, Shanghai, China

The New Yorker Magazine, New York, USA

Opera Gallery, New York, USA

Tokyo Bunkamura Gallery Museum, Tokyo, JapanTenjin Salaria Event Space, Fukuoka, JapanPlaza, Osaka, JapanLoft Gallery Museum, Nagoya, JapanRed Brick Wearhouse Gallery, Yokohama, Japan

Opera Gallery, Singapore

Radio House, Paris, FranceEsch Theatre Gallery, LuxembourgOpera Gallery, New York, USA

Aktuel Gallery, GermanyEuropean Council, Strasbourg, FranceCanne’s Gallery, France

Daune Gallery, Paris, France

European Council, Strasbourg, FrancePaul Ricard Space, Bandol, FranceLe Virage Gallery, Délémont, Switzerland

19931995199619971999

Gold medal at the Mondial-arts Salon, Avignon, France1st Prize of Sculpture of the European Council Award, Strasbourg, France1st Prize for new technics, Couthenans, France1st Prize of Sculpture, Luxeuil, FrancePaul Ricard Foundation’s Prize of Sculpture, Bandol, France

Awards

1992199419951995199619961998199820002002200520062007

“La Rencontre”, T2l, Colmar, France“Sarajevo”, Collection d’Esch, Luxembourg“La Genèse”, Parc des Ballons des Vosges, Munster, France“Naissance en forêt”, La Verte Vallée, Munster, France“Ancêtres”, MGEN, Hyères, France“Les Gardiens du Temple” , MGEN, Les Trois-Epis, France“R.G.”, Délémont, Switzerland“Cause toujours”, MGEN, Hyères, France“La Famille”, MGEN, France“Entre ciel et terre”, Adidas, Yokohama, Japan“Bull Spirit”, Shanghai Sculpture Space, Shanghai, China“Evolution Totem”, Cofime, Colmar, France“Tribute to Wilma”, Adidas, China

Public commissions

Exhibitions

Pierre Matter’sstatement

Pierre Matter

Like many other people from my generation, the omnipresence of science, machines, and more generally, computers, social networks and as a result, the growing

impact of high technology on the entire organic world, is at the heart of my thought-process and a large focus of my artistic work.

Hybridization, the seemingly endless possibilities offered up by genetic science, nanotechno-logy and its application, have become our daily bread.

It is difficult to escape the world of machines, and this hyper-efficientworld in which we live is such that it fills my entire artistic space.

It is, therefore, no accident that my masters and sources of inspiration include Enki Bilal, David Lynch, Hans Ruedi Giger, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Juan Antonio Giménez, and Jules Verne, all people whose works revolve around an increasingly imaginary world where humans and robots rub shoulders, or even mate.

It is also no accident that many of my latest creations depict “ocean life”, like the hybrid of a hammerhead shark-submarine missile, because even our oceans

have been affected by the explosion of mechanization and industrialization, inversing the historical balance between predators, automatically placing us at the peak of the food chain.

As an artist, I sort of feel like a sponge that has absorbed everything surrounding it – materials and concepts from my time – and which, after a more or less lengthy process of fermentation and settling, offers up a cocktail of questions and, sometimes, answers, a mixture of poetry and beauty; when the need for light has made itself felt.

It is the challenge I take on with each new work. The spectator alone holds the key; they are the

ones, with their emotions, who finally decide whether the work’s message has been understood.

JEAN-PIERRE ROC-ROUSSEY & PIERRE MATTER

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Looking for the Future, 2009Bronze, edition of 8 • 96 x 137 x 48 cm - 37.8 x 53.9 x 18.9 in. • Price on request

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Serendipity, 2012Bronze, copper and various metals, unique piece • 120 x 90 x 35 cm - 47.2 x 35.4 x 13.8 in. • Price on request

Minotorero, 2014Bronze, edition of 8 • 88 x 41 x 31 cm - 34.6 x 16.1 x 12.2 in. • Price on request

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Le Petit Penseur, 2013Bronze, edition of 8 • 32 x 21 x 10 cm - 12.6 x 8.3 x 3.9 in. • Price on request

Bright Mama, 2013Bronze, stainless steel and aluminium, unique piece • 98 x 75 x 42 cm - 38.6 x 29.5 x 16.5 in. • Price on request

The Little Big Thinker, 2014Bronze, edition of 8 • 190 x 85 x 42 cm - 74.8 x 33.5 x 16.5 in. • Price on request

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Salto Mortale, 2014Bronze, edition of 8 • 156 x 145 x 65 cm - 61.4 x 57.1 x 25.6 in. • Price on request

Fighting Bull, 2008Bronze, edition of 8 • 80 x 80 x 32 cm - 31.5 x 31.5 x 12.6 in. • Price on request

Jumping Bull, 2008Bronze, edition of 8 • 55 x 82 x 22 cm - 21.6 x 32.3 x 8.7 in. • Price on request

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Hammershark Prototype, 2014Stainless steel, steel, various metals and glass, unique piece • 138 x 268 x 98 cm - 54.3 x 105.5 x 38.6 in. • Price on request

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Pegasus, 2010Bronze, edition of 8 • 115 x 115 x 38 cm - 45.3 x 45.3 x 15 in. • Price on request

Les Liens, 2008Bronze, edition of 8 • 104 x 25 x 25 cm - 40.9 x 9.8 x 9.8 in. • Price on request

Le Cheval de l’Apocalypse, 2012Bronze, edition of 8 • 85 x 35 x 30 cm - 33.5 x 13.8 x 11.8 in. • Price on request

Poisson œil, 2004Bronze, edition of 8 • 60 x 50 x 20 cm - 23.6 x 19.7 x 7.9 in. • Price on request

Antagonisme, 2014Bronze and copper, unique piece • 55 x 65 x 14 cm - 21.6 x 25.6 x 5.5 in. • Price on request

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Are You Talking to Me?, 2014Copper, bronze and various metals, unique piece • 168 x 123 x 77 cm - 66.1 x 48.4 x 30.3 in. • Price on request

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L’Expérience du miroir, 2013Bronze, edition of 8 • 22 x 31 x 11 cm - 8.7 x 12.2 x 4.3 in. • Price on request

And the Winner Is, 2009Bronze, edition of 8 • 17 x 60 x 12 cm - 6.7 x 23.6 x 4.7 in. • Price on request

Little Black Tiger, 2014Bronze, stainless steel and aluminium, unique piece • 173 x 175 x 61 cm - 68.1 x 68.9 x 24 in. • Price on request

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