Between Time and Light: Mathilde Denize

At the Perrotin Gallery in Tokyo, the Time and Light exhibition marks the first solo exhibition in Japan by French artist Mathilde Denize. The project presents the Contours series, a cycle of paintings that reflects on the nature of painting and the relationship between image, memory, and matter. In the past, Denize had often worked with found objects and fragments of previous works, cut and reassembled to create works that straddle painting and sculpture. In this new phase, the artist returns to the traditional format of the canvas, using it as an open space in which color and form interact. The canvases are constructed with a palette of intense colors, often obtained from paints salvaged from film sets or advertising productions. Pinks, purples, yellows, and deep blues combine on the surface, creating chromatic structures that generate movement and visual rhythm. In the exhibition space, the paintings are arranged as a continuous sequence, almost like a visual score in which variations in color and form produce a dynamic effect. In this way, the painting does not appear as a finished image but as a field of relationships that directly engages the viewer. The exhibition thus offers a reflection on contemporary painting as an open experience, in which time, light, and perception become active elements of the work.