From 17 March to 10 June 2007

For the first time in “No stress, just strass”, Nicole Tran Ba Vang is bringing together several series of photographs as well as work based on painting, video and installation. In this exhibition one can see the entire coherence in the work of this artist whose origins are in fashion, one who has quickly made her mark on the French contemporary photographic landscape.

In her new series entitled ‘Autumn/Winter Collection 2007/08’, Nicole Tran Ba Vang extends her research into the relationship between the body and its décor. These chameleon women have embroidered skin and delicate decorations adorning the walls are extended into their flesh, into which they appear to melt.

These new images relate to the installation entitled ‘Chloé’ and are produced for the exhibition. For the first time, Nicole Tran Ba Vang carries out a work in line with the exhibition space itself. The artist invents the concept of “wall-embroideries” echoing the practice of “wall painting”, by embroidering directly on the walls. They appear to be an extension of the model’s skin. Contaminating the model’s space as it does the audience’s space, the installation repeats the ambiguous interplay between the real and fictitious which recurs in the artist’s work.

Nicole Tran Ba Vang has also made a “wall-piercing”. Into the wall she has embedded the words ‘No stress, just strass’, a quotation from the November 2005 issue of Vogue magazine. Built from metal wall plugs it gives out a light transforming these building supplies into sparkling diamonds.

Besides these unseen pieces, the exhibition revisits and confronts several photographic series, such as: ‘Icon Collection’, the artist’s first work which uses paint to render models nude, directly on the pages of the magazine; ‘Autumn/Winter Collection 2003/2004’ where the first embroidery on bodies starts to appear; and the ‘Cellular Couture Collection’ which takes its inspiration both from couture and biology to create abstract photographs with a pictorial inspiration.