Rosalie Maillard trained at EESAB (Ecole européenne supérieure d'art de Bretagne) in Rennes. Her work, which is mainly expressed through drawing and painting but can also take the form of volumes, has the body as its main theme. Whether anatomical or a mental representation of different states, physical or spiritual, it is often represented in movement, through organic and interconnected forms.
The works by Rosalie Maillard, presented at the gallery for the first time, are two medium- and large-format drawings on paper, the base of which is painted in watercolour and the successive planes of which are meticulously executed in coloured pencil.
Rosalie Maillard is a multidisciplinary artist currently in her fifth year at the Rennes School of Fine Arts. Whilst she expresses herself primarily through painting and drawing, she also works in sculpture - using plaster or ceramics - embroidery, and poetry. These diverse forms of creative expression enable her to explore, from different angles, her main subject of reflection: the body. The body as a shell, the body as an object that sometimes constrains the mind, the body as a collection of organs, the body in its unity and in its parts.
Thus, her first collection of poetry is titled 'Viscerography'. Her works combining ceramics and embroidery are titled 'À corps ouvert' - the ceramics representing the bodily shell and the embroidery embodying the organs. Similarly, her drawings and paintings are titled "Corps en flaque", "Corps inhospitalier" or "Mes contours sont des blessures". This perception and representation of the body as a constraint stems in particular from the fact that Rosalie Maillard works on and around her epilepsy. A subject that, inevitably, impacts her daily life. The paintings and drawings addressing these seizures seem to reveal synapses or neural connections.
In any case, they plunge us into the depths of a body that, at times, acts independently of our will, putting us in danger. Rosalie, moreover, paints her canvases in the same way she experiences her epileptic seizures. First on the floor. The canvas is removed from its stretcher and the acrylic is splashed energetically and almost uncontrollably across the surface. During this process, the canvas is marked by the unevenness of the floor on which it rests. Then, once the paint has dried and the seizure has passed, Rosalie stretches the canvas onto a frame and, just as she rises after a seizure, she brings the previously projected contours and forms back to life, meticulously revealing them with coloured pencils. On paper, the process is identical, except that the surface is not brought into contact with the floor.
Rosalie Maillard's works convey a lived experience that gives them their power. Beyond their aesthetic dimension, they move us with their organic quality. They challenge us and confront us with our own perceptions of the body and the mind, and with the way we would like to be able to control this body that can sometimes let us down. Through this intimate and personal work, Rosalie Maillard ultimately addresses universal themes.
Jonathan Roze
April 2026