Ludovic Fleury

Exposum II explores the margins where life persists despite everything. Figures inspired by Narcissus lean toward murky surfaces—cracked asphalt, saturated humus, contaminated waters. What they seek is not their reflection but a proximity to what endures at ground level, in the interstices of the administered world.

There, in these zones, the plants that agrologistics relegates to the status of pests proliferate: dandelions, echinacea, wasteland grasses. These second-order species persist where the logic of control has failed or surrendered. To grant them pictorial attention constitutes a practice of care—a form of gaze that refuses the hierarchy between living beings deemed worthy or unworthy of regard.

This attention passes through the material itself. The juxtaposition and layering of strata—crepuscular grounds, mineral textures, eroded surfaces — conjure urban, peri-urban, and natural environments that contamination has rendered indistinct. Human figures and plants share the same condition: that of spectral bodies, exposed, permeated by the toxicities of our era. Hartmut Rosa defines resonance as a mode of relating to the world opposed to alienation. These paintings attempt to restore this capacity for listening between living beings, against the systemic deafness of techno-solutionist regimes.

Marge lové, 2025, Oil on linen, 120 x 80 x 3,5 cm

Fièvre végétale (Plant fever), 2025, Oil on linen, 46 x 38 x 4,5 cm, Private collection

Seuil (Threshold), 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm

Bursting out of dust, 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm ; Grandir sans composte , 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm

Humus spectral (Spectral humus), 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm ; Silence poreux (Porous silence), 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm

Substance et subistance (Substance and subsistence), 2025, Oil on linen (dyptic), 18 x 28 x 2,5 cm ; Chicoré asphaltée (Asphalted chicory), 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm

Nuée (Swarm), 2026, Oil on linen, 65 x 92 x 3,5 cm

Poussière de silicium (Silicon dust), 2025, Oil on linen, 40 x 50 x 2,5 cm

Saprophytes, 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm, Private collection ; Pharmakos, 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm, Private collection

Malum I, 2026, Oil on linen, 22 x 33 x 2,5 cm ; Malum II, 2026, Oil on linen, 22 x 33 x 2,5 cm

Never bothered to bloom, 2025,Oil on linen (diptych), 18 x 28 x 2,5 cm

Fantôme périurbain (Suburban ghost), 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm

Saprophytes, 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm, Private collection ; Pharmakos, 2025, Oil on linen, 18 x 14 x 2,5 cm, Private collection

Sous terre, sous peau (Beneath the ground, beneath the skin), 2025, Oil on linen, 40 x 50 x 3,5 cm ; Grey era, 2025, Oil on linen, 50 x 40 x 3,5 cm, Private collection