CLAY, PIGMENTS & FLUFF

CLAY, PIGMENTS & FLUFF : GROUP EXHIBITION

OPENING : 08.10.2025 | 6 to 8 pm | 15 rue du Page, 1050 Brussels

We are pleased to present a group exhibition with Claire Nicolet, Iris Marchand, Jacques Merle, Aran Quinn & Shishi San on view October 8th to November 8th, 2025.

EDJI Gallery has spent the past three years focused primarily on figurative painting. With Clay, Pigments & Fluff, we set out to expand our own boundaries by working with artists whose mediums we had not yet explored. What brings these artists together is a shared commitment to figuration in its broadest sense—whether through figures, landscapes, objects, or fragments of daily life—and a refusal of realism in favor of atmosphere and imagination.

Each of the five artists approaches this search in their own way, through materials as diverse as clay, textile, pigment, and fabric.

We were immediately drawn to Aran Quinn’s ceramics, where exaggerated, almost giant-like bodies are condensed into small, handheld sculptures. These naive figures depict couples in moments of intimacy or solitary characters in search of connection, carrying a sense of humor and vulnerability at once. What looks playful on the surface reveals careful attention to form and material, showing how clay and pigment can be pushed toward scale and character.

Jacques Merle’s practice initially captured our attention through monumental murals that transform buildings, rooms or walls. For this exhibition, however, Merle turns to smaller formats, condensing the strength of his line and the intensity of his narratives into individual works on panel. His paintings, inspired by tapestry traditions and mythologies from Greece, Egypt, and the Norse world, bring in archetypal figures — centaures, angels, sirens — often placed within skies, seas, or floral settings. The result is a visual language that feels both timeless and contemporary, where bold linework and layered references create an imaginative world open to multiple readings.

Shishi San approaches textiles with the same desire to push the boundaries of her medium, working with tufting, a technique she handles with both precision and play. Her practice moves between drawing, sculpture, and design, resulting in colorful, tactile compositions that sit at the edge of craft and contemporary art. Her sculptural vases extend this language into three dimensions, where organic shapes and patterned surfaces come together, often incorporating elements of Asian folklore and craft traditions.

Iris Marchand, by contrast, works with found fabrics that she deliberately frees from the conventional frame. Her compositions shift between figuration and abstraction, reflecting years of self-examination and a constant search for an authentic visual language. Rejecting the boundaries imposed by the contemporary art scene, Marchand returns to her own voice with this recent body of work.

Finally, Claire Nicolet’s paintings anchor the exhibition with landscapes that hover between reality and reverie. Plants, trees, and skies are heightened into presence, often through restrained, monochrome palettes. Whether on large canvases or small works on paper, her scenes transform familiar environments into something both immediate and otherworldly, exemplifying a contemporary figuration that sublimates reality into atmosphere.

Together, these five artists show how figuration can be rebuilt across mediums: clay, pigments, fluff, fabric, and line. Each one treats material not as a limit but as an opening, transforming what is seen into something felt and imagined.

Clay, Pigments & Fluff is on view at EDJI Gallery, Rue du Page 15, 1050 Brussels, October 8 to November 29, 2025. Opening October 8, 6 to 8 pm.

For images and press inquiries: hello@edjigallery.com.