Thierry Lagalla

If one is to even begin to understand the dizzying scope of Thierry Lagalla’s work, one needs to authorise oneself to break down a few barriers in order to accept the concomitant presence of Heraclitus, Doctor Moatti (inventor of the moo box, a paradigmatic object in the artist’s practice), the Occitan language and the history of painting from Lascaux to Martin Kippenberger, included. Once this space has been created, the viewer will be able to relax into his exuberant, joyous, intimate and unrestricted body of work. They will be able to face the more or less triumphant self-portraits, the history of mortadella painting, as well as a number of culinary vanitas. Like Mr. Jourdain, perhaps Thierry Lagalla became an artist without knowing it. By simply doing what he did each day, he took on the mantle of the “plastic artist” through some form of opportunistic determinism. Since that day, he has never ceased to use burlesque, poetry and self-mockery to demythify that status and root it in reality with panache, even (and especially) if this means tripping up on it.