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Four Hands Works
John Mejia & Guillaume Cavalier
Gallery Alexandre Simonin presents a unique art experience: Guillaume Cavalier & John Mejia, painting together on the same canvases.
Two languages, two quests, one unique expression.
Two languages, two quests, one unique expression.
Mejia's pursuit of realism dismantles academic conventions through a series of delicate yet forceful gestures.
Cavalier, on the other hand, reveals reality through impressions, retracing a dreamlike narrative with a free and continuous black line.
From these two worlds emerges a singular dialogue between diverse approaches to reality. John's expressive figuration merges with Guillaume's symbolic narration. Together, their paintings deliver a cocktail of contrasts, shedding light on a pluralistic and humanistic vision.
Balanced between reality and imagination, their artistic duo embodies an aesthetic, spiritual, and social conciliation. Together, they aim to harmonize opposites in the pursuit of beauty.
The exhibition explores several themes, organized into four main categories: portraits, animals, famous paintings, and artists' tables.
For instance, Napoleon Bonaparte laid the foundations of a new society. Both admired and criticized, his strength of character and strategic intelligence opened him the doors to power. John restores the splendor of Napoleon’s golden years, where Bonaparte embodied an imperious ideal.
Guillaume, meanwhile, captures key periods of his life: the Italian, Egyptian, and Russian campaigns, his rivalry with the British navy, and his unwavering love for Josephine and artillery.
This series of portraits includes men of power, action, and arts, who coexist alongside their female counterparts, such as the portrait of The Geisha.
These two art lovers and admirers of its history resolve a centuries-old debate that began in Italy between proponents of color (the Venetian school) and those of line (the Florentine school). John Mejia and Guillaume Cavalier, through their collaborative work, crystallize a union of these two artistic approaches. John, as a disciple of color, brings a Latin warmth to the canvas. Guillaume, as a disciple of line, spiritualizes it.
Naturally, this led them to reinterpret iconic works by old masters.
Through the works of the elders Cavalier and Mejia bear witness to their time. They humorously contextualize paintings from the tradition in a post-industrial world.
This last theme communicates with simplicity the values of fraternity and living together, and once again materializes this aesthetic, spiritual and social conciliation embodied by their pictorial duo.