KNOKKE.- Maruani Mercier is presenting Richard Texier: Tales of Pantheism, a first solo exhibition, on view at the Knokke gallery. Richard Texier (b. 1955, Niort) describes himself with disarming simplicity: “I am a painter, a sculptor, or at least someone very close to the visual arts.” Yet his practice extends far beyond any single definition, moving fluidly between sculpture and painting, each medium sustaining and inspiring the other.
Tales of Pantheism reveals the full arc of Texier’s world by uniting his sculptures and paintings into a comprehensive exhibition. Painting complements sculpture as a meditative, exploratory counterpart. Guided by Elastogenesis, Texier’s manifesto of creative elasticity, this principle flows like a force within both matter and imagination. It is foremost an elasticity of the mind, opening the way to all possibilities. For an artist, it operates as a molding of dreams: Tanguy’s crystalline landscapes or Dalí’s melting watches each intuitively express this force. Elastogenesis is less a formal doctrine than a mental and artistic attitude, an openness to possibility and a way to structure and expand reality. It transforms each work into both a meditation and an exploration of the invisible energies animating creation. In the artist’s paintings, the spectator is never confronted by abstraction. Instead, they encounter elements that defy naming or rational analysis, inviting them to enter a state of complete mental openness alongside the artist.
Entering Texier’s sculptural pantheon is like stepping into an archaeological tale, a slow uncovering of forms that seem to surface from beneath layers of time. His sculptures, reminiscent of objects exhumed from the earth, appear as though they might have been buried for thousands of years or sent back from a distant future. His bestiary evokes the prehistoric African cradle of humankind, creatures that are both primordial and prophetic. The past seems to herald our future, and the future appears capable of recounting our past, revealing a mythology that stands outside our concept of linear time. In Texier’s universe, we encounter animals, but never men. This raises the question: are humans yet to come, or have they already vanished? His creatures inhabit a realm that is at once pre- and post-historic, a suspended age in which our own presence feels uncertain.
The medium of sculpture becomes the physical, tactile, and narrative dimension of Texier’s universe. Rooted in figuration, these objects, such as lamps, bowls and chandeliers, are part of our daily rituals and come alive with imagination. From the chandeliers, flames cast trembling shadows across the walls, an intimate waltz that transforms each animal into an animated figure. Light endows them with breath, as if lending each creature a soul. Drawing on Egyptian, Chinese, pre-Columbian, and imagined worlds, the sculptures transcend categorization, existing beyond art historical bounds. The earthy, mineral patinas reinforce their timeless aura, creating a sense of mythic continuity.
With lamps, such as Monkey Wisdom I, another story emerges. The advent of electric light marks the end of an ancient world; leaving concealed all the torchlight never touched. Texier’s lamp rises like a stalk carrying illumination, climbed by sculpted apes from which humankind descends. The gesture is at once humorous and profound, a lineage reaching toward light.
