Artist: Oda Jaune

“And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free. “
Touched By An Angel, Maya Angelou

Galerie Templon marks the spring by taking visitors on a journey deep into the complex and fascinating universe of Oda Jaune, an artist whose work transcends the frontiers of the imagination. In a series of twenty oils on canvas, the artist delves into a theme as timeless as it is universal: unconditional love.

Originally from Bulgaria, Oda Jaune has spent the decade or so since her studies in Germany creating an audacious body of work, unshackled by convention. Her art is both poetic and visionary, travelling the twists and turns of the subconscious in a language that flirts with surrealism, inviting the viewer to explore emotions rarely held up to the light.

Inspired by the poem “Touched by an angel” by Maya Angelou the exhibition focuses on the power of love through the fascinating prism of angels, an immortal yet paradoxical symbol. Angelic-type beings have been recognised by humans since the dawn of civilization. The archetype of communication between mortals and the divine, angels exists in almost every religion and culture appearing already 3,000 BC in pagan art as well as , Jewish, Islamic, and later in Christian art . Through her show „ Oil of Angels “Oda Jaune takes the Angel away from the religious and places it as the beings we carry from inside, digging deep into our human nature and the notion of angels as embodiment of the good inside of us.

The centrepiece of the show is a remarkable five-metre-long canvas. A touching and monumental homage to maternal love, it portrays a hybrid body featuring a rounded belly nestling between four feminine legs, nonchalantly reclining on a table. Above the table a winged arm protects a fragile newborn, suggesting the power of the unconditional mother love and its ability to overcome anything. Oda Jaune’s paintings establish a captivating sensory relationship. The viewer is pulled in by the delicacy of porcelain skin before being confronted with starker elements, such as a tenderly rose landscape of flesh, evoking the idea of the placenta and a pure white jar of milk, in a representation of the first ever meal, the source of life and the moment of becoming part of the living material world, in all its splendour and cruelty. This striking contrast inevitably brings to mind the duality and the power of love, nourishing yet so fragile.

With this exhibition, Oda Jaune reminds us that art is the language of the soul which is capable of posing deep questions about our beings, our decisions and existence, of its rebellion against the moment - right now, right here. “I do believe that only love is the answer. I am longing to know how deep can we as a humans love, the capability of that unconditional love to overcome the sorrow and pain, the injustice, giving us the wings to forgive the unforgivable, elevating us, leading us out of a spiral of darkness. I wanted to see the angels inside of us, I wanted to visualize love , its unconditional one transcendental value that is capable of anything!

By melding the real and the visionary, Oda Jaune reaffirms the way that painting can be the one that goes on where words cannot.

Born in 1979 in Bulgaria, Oda Jaune lives and works in Paris and London. Her work has featured in a variety of exhibitions in Europe and the USA, including Immortelle, MO.CO, Montpellier Contemporain (2023), Heart – Romanticism in Contemporary Art, Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris (2020), Hands – Solo Show, SEEN, Antwerp (2019), Peindre, dit-elle, chap. 2, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dôle (2017), Intrigantes incertitudes, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Saint- Etienne (2016), Peindre, dit-elle, Musée Départemental d'Art Contemporain de la Haute-Vienne, Rochechouart (2015), Confrontation avec Félicien Rops, Musée Félicien Rops, Namur (2011) and Tous cannibales, La Maison Rouge, Paris and me Collectors room, Berlin (2011). In 2018, the National Art Gallery in Sofia held a major retrospective of her work, Heartland.
Oda Jaune has been represented by Galerie Templon since 2009 and Oil of Angels is her tenth exhibition.