2023. Tan Kwank Liang encounters Alain Ellouz during a meditation retreat. He’s invited to the Alain Ellouz Foundation for a residency during which he has another encounter: alabaster. Born in Malaysia, the Singaporean artist Tan Kwank Liang earned a master’s degree in the applied arts.He draws on the patterns, symbols and techniques of traditional Chinese painting, similar to the art of Japanese stamps. His alabaster canvases feature a technique he developed that blends the art of shodo — Japanese Zen brush calligraphy — with sumi-e- style painting in acrylic and Chinese black ink. His unexpected, spontaneous stroke of the brush is rooted in a “let-the-forces-be” approach, an expression of the non-anthropocentric Asian culture. The exhibition is resounding with the artist’s relationship with meditation, a breathing mystical journey.

Creator of Atelier Alain Ellouz as well as of the foundation also named after him, Alain defines himself first and foremost as an artist from the outsider art movement. A passionate sculptor, Alain initially discovered alabaster in 1996. And that encounter marked a turning point in his life. In 2005, he modeled his new company around two passions: art and alabaster. Following a handful of collections created in partnership with his artistic director, Marion Biais-Sauvêtre, in 2021 he decided to further pursue endeavors in the art world. In March 2022, he inaugurated his foundation, and by the same token he prenented not only some of his most stately sculptures in the gardens surrounding the building, but also his Pixels d’albâtre, which showcase the work involved in extracting alabaster from quarries. That following October, Alain Ellouz launched his first exhibition entitled Chevauchées sur fragments d’albâtre. During the same month he created several pieces as part of his pixels d’albâtre series, and he also developed the innovative toiles d’albâtre concept in collaboration with two guest artists, Bernard Pourchet and Alistair Danhieux.

Since 2003, Alistair Danhieux has lived and worked in the French department of Nièvre in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, a well-known cradle of ceramists. It is in this town that he began his journey into the world of ceramics. Alistair works primarily with stoneware and porcelain, onto which he hand paints motifs using a blend of metallic oxides and enamel. His pieces are exhibited throughout many galleries in France and some of them can even be found in the Cité de la céramique, a French national ceramics museum located in Sèvres. Alistair demonstrates his well-sharpened skill in this first artistic collaboration with the foundation. His artistry is guided by alabaster’s veins, which offer the canvas upon which he creates.

After graduating from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1991, Bernard began his journey as a graphic designer before deciding to devote himself exclusively to his artistic endeavors. He expresses himself using the digital medium and a pictorial vocabulary borrowed from the graphic design world. Photography is one of the focal points of his explorations, since he extracts graphic material from that medium to compose his creations primarily intended for print. His works are like maps of imaginary worlds, inviting the eye to move about scanning the image’s details. Alain Ellouz invited Bernard Pourchet to compose his pieces by dialoguing with the materiality of the alabaster canvases the gallery’s founder selected. The magic in these works emerges from a search for a tenuous balance between the graphic power of alabaster and printed images.

As a photographic artist, Christel Martin has been photographing Atelier Alain Ellouz lighting designs for many years. In 2019, her fascination for the stone led her to create a series entitled Nature Vivante in collaboration with David Chambard. In these pieces, alabaster lighting elements are composed with the painter’s canvases. This series is a nod to the still life genre, and a celebration of not only the vibrant power of alabaster but also that of nature’s elements depticted in David Chambard’s paintings. Other alabaster-inspired series were to follow. Christel developed one where she invited dancers to move about in the presence of alabaster. The photographer captured a visible dialog between the dancers’ silhouettes in motion and the stone. Yet another series from the artist features a white alabaster square as a focal point set against various landscapes.

As a visual artist, Caroline Leite studied at the School of Fine Arts in Versailles. She is an illustrator, engraver, photographer and sculptor all at once. She pursues an artistic approach focused on the notions of imprint, legacy and remembrance. Her sculptures of concrete ruin, her photographs and her drawings of plant life and birds are like reminders of the past and of the fragile balance of our worlds. Each one of her pieces tells a story, almost like contemporary cave paintings. Caroline’s work with alabaster is almost sculptural, incorporating the volume and vibrant power of each stone piece.

Diplômée de à l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Versailles, Caroline Leite est artiste plasticienne pluridisciplinaire : dessinatrice, graveur, photographe et sculptrice. Explorant les notions d’empreinte, d’héritage et de mémoire, son travail questionne sans cesse le passage du temps. Ses sculptures de ruines de béton, ses travaux photographiques ou ses dessins de végétaux ou d’oiseaux agissent comme un révélateur du passé, soulignant l’équilibre fragile de nos mondes. Chacune de ses œuvres racontent une histoire, une sorte d’art pariétal contemporain. Composant avec l’albâtre de manière presque sculpturale, Caroline s’est laissée porter par les volumes, les dessins et la puissance vibratoire de la pierre.