Encre là ! | Toma-L

Born in Nantes in 1975, Thomas Labarthe, alias Toma-L, is a well-known artist in the high place dedicated to Outsider Art owing to the freedom that emanates from his work. In 2001, Toma-L discovered Jean Dubuffet, French painter, sculptor and visual artist, during a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou. At that moment, a creative impulse was awakened in him that was a real revelation for his career.

The exhibition “Encre là !” stems from an inexhaustible thought in the artist’s head: ink there, there, there or … there? The unconscious is the conductor in this chaos where series of melted faces are painted like a boiling magma on the verge of implosion. Such is the powerful image that Toma-L delivers to us. For him, the virtues of spontaneity are brought out by the absolute doubt that inhabits him. His gestures become incongruous, the atmosphere of his paintings becomes saturated by the unconscious and the colours blaze.