Siegfried Contemporary is pleased to announce: “Strange I‘ve seen that Face before……” a two person exhibition with UK based artist Caroline Achaintre and Paris based artist Anne Roger Lacan.

What brings them together in this show is their shared interest in the Human Psychology as well as Shamanism, particularly issues of a possible Dual (or maybe multiple) existences of one’s self, be it in the past, present or future.

Caroline Achaintre cites German Expressionism and post-war British sculpture as influences on her work; these movements are known for their crude aesthetics, which conveyed the trauma of a war-time generation. Her work also draws from ‘Primitivism’, a style of early 20th century art that incorporated imagery from tribal cultures. Achaintre is interested in these periods because they present junctures between the ancient and modern, psychological and physical, exoticism and technology.

Achaintre likens her work to anthropological museum displays, where objects are removed from another place or time and are brought into a contemporary context.

Her works takes the form of ceramics, wool tufted wall installations as well as works on paper.

Recently Caroline Achaintre opened her Solo show at Tate Britain as part of the BP spotlight commission. She also recently won the Illy Present Future Price, which showcased her work in a exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli in Torino, Italy a few months ago.

Anne Roger Lacan has always been fascinated by people and their psychological patterns and behaviors. Her work is influenced by the French outsider artist Pacsal-Désir Maisonneuve whose shell masks were a great influence on Andre Breton, the Surrealist poet and writer. Breton introduced Maisonneuve’s work to Jean Dubuffet, who then initiated Art Brut, an art produced by people who were not professionals, who operated outside the conventional aesthetic norms, and who did not belong to an artistic milieu. Anne Roger Lacan is deeply inspired by those “artists in spite of themselves”, their naïve faith,their disinterested perseverance is what she is aiming for.

Other influences are Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, famous for his machine assemblages, Kurt Schwitters and the work of Louise Bourgeois.

Anne Roger Lacan is trying to deal with her own as well as other people’s psychological issues. These can be stories, thoughts or dreams, often of very fragile nature that find their way to the artist and are then being transformed into artworks.

Roger Lacan’s oeuvre is mostly made from found material that she transforms into beautifully whimsical sculptures. She also creates drawings and poetry. Her work is a cabinet of curiosities of other people’s as well as her own journeys that life takes us on.