Born in 1995, Léa Merlhiot lives and works between Paris and Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
She is a painter and photographic artist. Her practice is primarily rooted in painting and experimental photography, while extending into installation, ceramics and performance.
Her research explores the body and the act of sensing. She is interested in sensations, states of presence, movements of memory, and what unfolds at the threshold between reality and imagination. Through colour, matter and movement, she seeks to give form to what moves beneath the skin and escapes representation, with a desire to open up the senses and question what our perception is still capable of receiving. She is particularly interested in the different ways we sense and inhabit our bodies, in what can make us feel fully present within them, or at times as though we were stepping outside them.
In 2023, she founded Maison LÀLÉ with artist Laura Caron, extending this research through experiments in presence, porosity and shared creation. Collective practice holds an important place in her work: exchange, collaboration and the sharing of ideas and processes are integral to the way she works.
She also collaborates with other collectives including Soleil Mercure, HOPLA Studio and Somme Sensible.
Trained in cultural mediation and applied arts in Toulouse, she continued her studies at Gobelins in Paris. Alongside this, she studied acting and directing at École Auvray-Nauroy, and further developed her practice of anatomical drawing and life drawing with Antoine Barjini, as well as ceramics with Emmanuel Hiron
She is a painter and photographic artist. Her practice is primarily rooted in painting and experimental photography, while extending into installation, ceramics and performance.
Her research explores the body and the act of sensing. She is interested in sensations, states of presence, movements of memory, and what unfolds at the threshold between reality and imagination. Through colour, matter and movement, she seeks to give form to what moves beneath the skin and escapes representation, with a desire to open up the senses and question what our perception is still capable of receiving. She is particularly interested in the different ways we sense and inhabit our bodies, in what can make us feel fully present within them, or at times as though we were stepping outside them.
In 2023, she founded Maison LÀLÉ with artist Laura Caron, extending this research through experiments in presence, porosity and shared creation. Collective practice holds an important place in her work: exchange, collaboration and the sharing of ideas and processes are integral to the way she works.
She also collaborates with other collectives including Soleil Mercure, HOPLA Studio and Somme Sensible.
Trained in cultural mediation and applied arts in Toulouse, she continued her studies at Gobelins in Paris. Alongside this, she studied acting and directing at École Auvray-Nauroy, and further developed her practice of anatomical drawing and life drawing with Antoine Barjini, as well as ceramics with Emmanuel Hiron
Recently, she presented her work at Galerie Naund in Leipzig and at DOC! in Paris. With HOPLA, she also created a performance for La Nuit des Fous at the Studio of the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Her personal work has also been presented at GROS LOT in Gennevilliers, Centre Ruth Bader, and Galerie Louis Simon. As part of collective projects, her work has been presented at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Artagon and FRAC Île-de-France.
She is currently developing a new series of paintings and experimental photographs exploring menstruation and dysphoria, working with large-scale formats and painted and printed sheets. This research will lead to an exhibition in 2027. She is also preparing the exhibition Transmutations with artist Laura Caron / LÀLÉ.
She is currently developing a new series of paintings and experimental photographs exploring menstruation and dysphoria, working with large-scale formats and painted and printed sheets. This research will lead to an exhibition in 2027. She is also preparing the exhibition Transmutations with artist Laura Caron / LÀLÉ.
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 drawing and automatic writing during their performance.
Their artistic approach is at the frontiers of the imagination: repairing reality by playing with chance.
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 drawing and automatic writing during their performance.
Their artistic approach is at the frontiers of the imagination: repairing reality by playing with chance.