Jeremy Demester: Ouidah

All images (c) Jeremy Demester courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler. Pictured, Le soleil du peintre (2020).

While galleries and museums remain physically closed, many are making their exhibitions available online, either with VR (virtual reality) tours, or with detailed photos of all exhibits. Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin was scheduled to be showing a solo exhibition of the French artist Jeremy Demester, this has now moved online. Demester’s work include paintings and sculptures of ceremonial garments and totem-like objects, exploring myths and religions.

Image: Adé revenants (Egoun goun) (2019).

Image: Tron (2020).

Demester works between Paris and Ouidah, Benin, where he has established a studio. Demester creates works inspired by the Voodoo cults of the Yoruba culture and this exhibition was developed through consultation with several Voodoo masters (Vodounnon). An oracle gave the artist twenty-one words. These words, such as sun, moon, arrow or cross, are all symbols that populate the works, in the artist’s words, to activate the world of spirits.

Image: Buriyan ceremony dress (2019).

Image: Art objects from Demester's own collection.

Demester’s works are presented along with art objects from his own collection, created in Ouidah, which bear witness to several aspects of the Voodoo journey. The Voodoo art objects take various forms and continually evolve in response to the fluctuations of the Western market, which can be felt in the availability of certain fabrics or in clothing fashions.

Ouidah is Demester’s fourth solo exhibition with the Max Hetzler gallery and his second solo presentation in Berlin. Born in 1988 in France, Demester graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in 2014 and currently lives in Paris.

Visit www.maxhetzler.com for more information. And for more online art exhibitions, visit the website Galleries Now.