Compositions: Arnaud Adami
Compositions, presented at STANCE Gallery, marks a new chapter in Arnaud Adami’s ongoing exploration of florists, a subject that has gradually become central to his current series. Born in 1995 in Lannion, Adami lives and works in Paris. After graduating from École nationale d’art de Bourges and École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris, he was recognized for his singular sensitivity that we find in his figurative practice.
The works presented in Compositions extend the reflection initiated in Ma part d’eux, the exhibition presented at Château La Coste this February, where Adami first developed a body of paintings dedicated to florists and their gestures. Rather than approaching the flower as a decorative motif, Adami focuses on the people who handle, arrange, transport, and care for it. His attention is directed toward moments of concentration and intimacy: hands gathering leaves from the floor, figures hidden behind bouquets, bodies absorbed by repetitive acts of composition. The florist becomes both worker and performer, engaged in a choreography of care. In Adami’s paintings, these often-overlooked professions acquire a quiet monumentality. Through scale, light, and composition, he elevates figures associated with invisible labor into contemporary protagonists, granting dignity and presence to gestures that usually remain unnoticed. In the painting depicting a woman in a vivid pink sweater sweeping scattered foliage into a dustpan, the scene oscillates between domestic gesture and ritual action. The figure bends forward almost entirely, her face concealed by her hair, transforming the act of cleaning into an image of withdrawal and introspection. Adami’s handling of light and texture heightens this ambiguity: the luminous pink emerges from a dense vegetal darkness, while the leaves on the floor appear almost theatrical in their dispersion. The composition recalls the quiet tension already present in Ma part d’eux, where florists occupied spaces suspended between backstage labor and staged representation. Another striking work portrays a figure carrying an abundant bouquet that completely eclipses the face. Here, identity dissolves into floral excess. The bouquet becomes an extension of the body, or perhaps its mask. Adami repeatedly stages this tension between appearance and disappearance. The recurring dark foliage in the background creates an enveloping atmosphere, situating the figures within a space that feels at once natural and close to the spectator.
Throughout the exhibition, flowers are never treated as still-life subjects alone. They function as emotional and symbolic material, capable of embodying fragility and labor. In Compositions, Adami deepens the vocabulary introduced at Château La Coste, refining his attention to gesture, surface, and the silent relationships between figures and their environments. The exhibition unfolds as a series of constructed encounters in which floral composition mirrors the act of painting itself: assembling fragments, balancing presence and absence, and giving form to precious moments of care.
Text: Margaux Plessy