Her story
Born in 1967, Gwenaëlle Le Mée spent her childhood between Antibes in the south of France and holidays in Brittany, before pursuing a professional career in Paris and overseas. She now lives on the Île de Ré, facing the Atlantic Ocean.
His interest in art began as a gentle sketch, a recreational activity, and a family atmosphere. This taste for aesthetics quickly entered his professional life.
Journalist, artistic director, editor—her favorite subjects have always been images and words set to rhythm in a text, layout, montage, broadcast, or book.
Then came the time of temptation, necessary to experiment, to test, to practice. After taking various technical courses and workshops in Paris and abroad—including a long period living between Doha and Beirut—and earning a degree in fine arts from Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, he initially gravitated toward abstraction, which offered complete freedom. The rediscovery of his old Olympus film camera at the bottom of a box rekindled his interest in the object and the technique. It was obvious.
She had already experimented with photographic transfer during a project on the memory of places in the Middle East in 2012, but at that time it was only one component of the canvas. Today, the image in all its dimensions—light, color, framing, format—becomes my raw material, which I test, manipulate, retouch, repair, and protect with pigments, inks, glazes, and other experiments until movement emerges.
Sublimating wounds
A graduate in Fine Arts from the Sorbonne university (Paris, France), Gwenaëlle Le Mée's universe borders on the dreamlike, where she gives herself complete creative freedom, combining photography, sculpture, and painting. Her technique is akin to alchemy, the proportions of which are the result of multiple explorations across the arts. Each medium is reinvented, juxtaposed, and repurposed to create a vibrant material.
"Photography is my primary medium. I then transfer the print onto wood, a vibrant material that allows me to sand, carve, and even “damage” the image, then reinvent it through glazes, inks, paint, pastels, gold leaf, etc., according to my inspiration. The incidents of transfer are then “sublimated” to give life to a unique work, like our own existence. I try to transcribe my perception and feelings at the moment of shooting, letting chance play its part in the creative process. Photography then becomes matter and emotion."
The relief created, in total freedom, reveals the wounds, the wear and tear of time, the accidents, in a recomposed harmony. A sublimated vision of our world today.
"Life is fleeting, where everything is movement and transformation depending on what we decide to do with it. This impermanence of existence should encourage us to live passionately in the present moment and believe in our dreams. We all suffer from emotional wounds, stemming from our childhood experiences, which shape our adult personalities. Breaking out of our familiar patterns and letting go of this baggage is not easy. Love, gentleness, and beauty are healing ingredients. This is where my work as a visual artist takes shape as a form of artistic therapy, if I may say so. Starting from the real world, experimenting again and again, accepting flaws and accidents, observing, evolving by taking a step back, and finally sublimating the wounds."
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Galerie Bettina , 2 rue Bonaparte, Paris 6eme
Galerie Hammer , 27 rue des vieux murs, Lille
Galerie Sophie Le Mée , La Flotte-en-Ré
Galerie Sénac , La Flotte – du 3 au 16 mai + 9 au 22 août - expo collective
Galerie Les Belles Vues , Auray avec l’expo collective BZH
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Salon d’Automne, sélection 2024, à la Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris
Galerie Bettina, 2 rue Bonaparte, Paris 6eme
Galerie Sophie Le Mée, La Flotte-en-Ré
L’art à la Perrière, Festival dans Le Perche (mai)
Salon des Beaux Arts sélection 2024, Orangerie du Sénat, Paris 6ème
– Lauréate PRIX Jean Larivière
Festival île de Ré photo
Galerie Sénac (juillet), La Flotte – expo collective
Galerie La Réserve, Auray (Morbihan) – expo solo
Expo4art, Halle des Blancs Manteaux, Paris 4e (27<29 sept.)
Salon d’art contemporain à Bruxelles, Art3F Brussels (22<24 nov.)
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Galerie Bettina, 2 rue Bonaparte, Paris 6eme
Salon des Beaux Arts, sélection 2023, Réfectoire des Cordeliers, Paris 6eme
Art Capital, Salon des artistes français, sélection 2023, au Grand Palais éphémère, Paris
Galerie des remparts Caroline Canon, Bordeaux
La Mini Galerie, La Rochelle
Galerie Sénac, La Flotte
Galerie Sophie Le Mée, La Flotte
La galerie du port, exposition solo, Ars-en-Ré
Festival île de Ré photo
Expo4art, Halle des Blancs Manteaux, Paris 4e (15<17 déc.)
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Salon des Beaux Arts sélection 2022, Orangerie du Sénat, Paris 6ème
Galerie de l’Avant Port, La Flotte, expo solo
Printemps de Fleuriau, La Rochelle
13ème édition d’Arts Atlantic, La Rochelle
Festival des Arts Actuels entre ré et Oléron, 11ème édition
L’Ancre Maritaise, Sainte-Marie de Ré
Résidence à la Galerie Chevalier Gambette, Loix
Galerie Caméléon, Paris 11ème
Prao, La Rochelle
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12ème édition d’Arts Atlantic à La Rochelle, France
Galerie Sophie Le Mée à La Flotte sur l’île de Ré
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10 ème édition d’Arts Atlantic à La Rochelle, France
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Licence d’Arts Plastiques à l’Université Panthéon-Sorbonne à Paris
Membre de l’équipe d’organisation des Rencontres Artistiques du Qatar
“L’art du dessin” chez l’artiste Catherine Delmas Lett
Worshops au Museum of Islamic Art à Doha, Qatar -
Sculpture à Virginia Commonwealth University à Doha, Qatar
Souk Waqif Art Center à Doha, Qatar
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2016-2020
Journaliste – Responsable d’édition à Franceinfo
2006 – 2016
Directrice de publication et co-auteure chez Art & Privilège éditions (Liban)
2007 – 2015
Directrice artistique HHO Photolibrary (Qatar)
2005 – 2007
Journaliste – Coordinatrice pour l’agence de presse photo MGA production
1994 – 2005
Journaliste rédactrice et Chef d’édition à LCI
Dates
Gwenaëlle Le Mée received the prestigious Jean Larivière Prize at the Orangerie du Sénat at the Salon National des Beaux Arts 2024 in Paris.
The visual artist's works are on display at the Bettina Gallery in the Saint-Germain-des-Près in Paris and at the Sophie Le Mée Gallery on the Île de Ré, on the French Atlantic coast.
