Our French Connection - November 1 - 29, 2025

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Opening Reception: November 1 from 6–8 PM – Free & Open to the Public​

 

France is one of the most concentrated places in the world for outsider artists and we want to share some of them with you!

This exhibition features 4 self-taught artists that currently work and live in France. These artists are Anouk Rugueu, Foued Mokrani, Dominique Lemoine and MAÏ.

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Anouk Rugueu

“Rugueu (which means rough in french) can looks like a weird name.

I took this name in a first period of creativity, when my style was more caustic, funny and raw.

I hesitated a while about the name but it was too late to change...

I first worked in a museum bookshop, great place to merge my interests in books and art.

I love to draw on vintage book pages, on ulcycled unfold cardboards and making little drawings telling tiny stories about the world.

I believe that my drawings question this world and its weirdness.

How nature survives in the city and modernity and how we are all of this at the same time without really knowing it.”

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Foued Mokrani grew up in Tunisia, lived in the Middle East for a few years before settling in France.

Without any formal artistic training, he emphasizes the imperfections of his drawing, developing a naive, surreal, and unique style. He experiments with different types of media and techniques.

His work illustrates human relationships and the relationship between humans and animals, whether real or surreal, and conveys varied, often nonconformist messages. His inspiration is fueled by his travel memories, ethnic arts, but also by scenes from everyday life or the interpretation of his own dreams.

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MAÏ

“I love that each person can create their own emotional story when looking at my work.

I love the feeling that a drawing or painting came into the world without me remembering the steps.

What matters to me is not the technique or the medium, but the feeling of being as close as possible to my truth.”

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Dominique Lemoine is an artist born in 1966. Studied History at the University of Reims-Champagne-Ardenne.

I have always drawn cars and trucks since I was a child. But less and less as I became an adult…

It was reading the catalog “Véhicules”, an exhibition presented by the Musée d’Art Brut in Lausanne, that gave me the desire to start again, to take out my colored pencils…

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Over the past two years, I have drawn about 200 vehicles, and here are a few of them.

I am an “amateur artist.” I am a teacher for CM1-CM2 classes (4th–5th grade), and having children of this age draw has also encouraged me to support them in their creative process… I provide them with models and information, and they bring me their perspective, which is not yet constrained by adult rules; I am at the source of raw creation!”

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