Richard Heller Gallery is pleased to present, All or Nothing, Laure Mary-Couégnias' second solo exhibition at the gallery. In this exhibition Mary-Couégnias presents an array of her now familiar motifs while also introducing some new elements and unexpected surprises. The artist imagines a world in which no humans are portrayed, yet their artifacts and trace elements are always present. In many of her highly-staged theatrical works, the action is implied or “off camera.” In other instances, time is frozen in mid-action, like an isolated still from a movie scene forever longing for the denouement. In an early interview between myself and Laure the artist stated, “The surrealist landscapes I represent are meant to evoke a peaceful atmosphere. There is a lot of back and forth between the real and the unreal, so that ambiguity is created and we are constantly in between." From the Artist: All or Nothing In the morning, while the first rays of the day were caressing the walls that surrounded me, I discovered that the room in which I live was separated into two spaces. One was real and the other unreal. I had to learn to master the majestic conduct of silence, in order to know in which one I had to enter and in which one I had to leave. I remained petrified in front of this choice which conjugates the plenitude of the renunciation with the disorder of my desires. The manifestation of a faithful feeling recognizes a communication without return to justify the agreement of the beauty whose approach I hear. There is no field until the purest research that I would not like to possess, this ambition of the heart and the spirit that orchestrates the exaltation to enrich the reason. Ah, this terrible need of absolute! The time passes and the day evaporates, the lack of unknown landscapes begins to miss. It is when one manages to distance oneself from oneself that love arises as if the pain did not belong to the past. This sweet uncertainty of the moment carries with it the sign of a day whose memory will never fade. Solicited by the range of tenderness, I find an unstory book written by no one, waiting to be read for someone. But the more the expression approaches the thought, the more it disappears. It is by turning my eyes away from the window that a darkened sky tells me that the night is sounding the signal, the contradiction runs away from me without external attachment, and is held by the internal force of an invisible subject. The time does not exist any more, because it never existed. All is there, nothing escapes. Nothing is there, all escapes. ~ Laure Mary-Couégnias Laure Mary-Couégnias (b.1989, France) has received her Bachelor and Masters studies from the National School of Fine Arts of Lyon in France. Mary-Couégnias has participated in various solo and group exhibitions. Selected solo exhibitions include ‘Escape Lane’, Richard Heller Gallery, California, USA; ‘Time Out’, Dio Horia Gallery, Athens; ‘Dream Bank’, Domaine de Rouerie, Contemporary Art Center, Sud Hérault, France; ‘Hi, How Are You?’, Septieme Gallery, Paris, France; ‘Love is a beach’, Contemporary Art Center le Vog, Fontaine, France; ‘J'irai Fleurir sous tes reins’, International Biennale of Contemporary Art, among others. Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Quixotic’, Ramp Gallery, London, United Kingdom; ‘Black & White vs. Color’, Richard Heller Gallery, California, USA; ‘Rendez-vous à la Havane’, Centro de Arte Contemporaneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba; ‘La Littorale #7’, Chambre(s) d'Amour, curated by Richard Leydier, International Biennale of Contemporary Art of Anglet, Côte Basque, Anglet, France; International Biennale of Contemporary Art of Lyon - Institute of Contemporary Art IAC - Villeurbanne, France; La synchronicité des éléments - CACN, Contemporary Art Center of Nîmes - Nîmes, France. Mary-Couégnias was awarded winner of the visual arts commission at International City of Arts, Paris, France. Her work is featured in numerous public and private collections, such as Association Les Harpailleurs, Switzerland, The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, USA, the Château de Courterolles, France, the Domaine de Roueïre, Sud-Hérault, France, and The Hall Art Foundation, USA. Mary-Couégnias’s works have been presented by international art publications such as Juxtapoz, Artpress, Elle, Le Monde, among others.