Léa Merlhiot, born in 1995, is a painter, who lives and works between Paris and Royan. Evolving in a surreal and colorful universe, his work revolves around painting, drawing, performance and installation.
She continues in the footsteps of Dadaism and Surrealism.
In her work, she wishes to open a porous space between dream and reality. Her paintings are an invitation to the land of dreams and chimeras, she attempts to explore what lies beneath the answers of reality and consciousness.
Through the organic experience of painting, she leads a search towards the unspeakable and the buried secrets of the unconscious.
A true refuge and necessity, painting allows him to express his emotions, and to rediscover his child's eye.
FR
She continues in the footsteps of Dadaism and Surrealism.
In her work, she wishes to open a porous space between dream and reality. Her paintings are an invitation to the land of dreams and chimeras, she attempts to explore what lies beneath the answers of reality and consciousness.
Through the organic experience of painting, she leads a search towards the unspeakable and the buried secrets of the unconscious.
A true refuge and necessity, painting allows him to express his emotions, and to rediscover his child's eye.
FR
Her work has been presented in different places in France, among others at the Ruth Bader Center.at the Halles in Paris, at the Remue Ménage festival in Domont, at the Les Luminescentes festival in Valmondois, at the Louis Simon gallery and at the Malve space in Royan, as well as in residence at the Halle Papin, at the Gare XP, at the DOC! and at Shakirail in Paris. Recently, she performed for the evening La Nuit des fous at the Louvre Museum in Paris, as well as at the opening evening “le Sacre” at GROS LOT, in Gennevilliers.
Soon, she is preparing an exhibition at the DOC! (Paris), a short film, Les Larmes d'Alluminium, produced by Fumigènes Film, as well as a performance and installation with the collective LÀLÉ - “les pleurieuses” at GROS LOT (Gennevilliers) in July.
A residency is planned at Casa Régis (Italy, August 2025)
Soon, she is preparing an exhibition at the DOC! (Paris), a short film, Les Larmes d'Alluminium, produced by Fumigènes Film, as well as a performance and installation with the collective LÀLÉ - “les pleurieuses” at GROS LOT (Gennevilliers) in July.
A residency is planned at Casa Régis (Italy, August 2025)
In 2023, she created the LÀLÉ collective, with Laura Caron, writer-acrobat and author's assistant to Valère Novarina. They carry out joint research and work hand in hand for 10 years in the pursuit of surrealist ideas. Multidisciplinary and undisciplined artist-researchers, they develop an approach where they bring together different mediums, painting and poetry, collective experiences, experimental films (cinepoem) and in-situ performances.
The same year, they mounted the exhibition POROSITÉ, which mixed painting and poetry and wrote their first manifesto together, defending the idea that surrealism is not dead; Their research is subsequently devoted to the fields of performance and improvisation as an opening to “heal reality with imagination”.
They practice automatic drawing and automatic writing during their performance.
Their artistic approach is at the frontiers of the imagination: repairing reality by playing with accident and chance.