A study of recent work by Maude Léonard-Contant that finds inspiration in language.
Canadian-Swiss artist Maude Léonard-Contant’s imagery is nourished by language—the shape of letters, words, and fragments of sentences. It is manifested in idiosyncratic, often larger-than-life works that are spread out on the floor. Language is palpable even when her installations are barely comprehensible. Léonard-Contant navigates the nonverbal through meticulous articulation of shapes and surfaces, textures, and space. Her engagement with materials she loves and which she carefully selects for their erotic and narrative potential forms a syntax with which meaning is created and narratives unfold.
Maude Léonard-Contant: Gathering features a series of four site-specific works the artist created between 2023 and 2025 for display in museums in Switzerland, Italy, and France. Texts by Maude Léonard-Contant, as well as essays contributed by writer and critic Estelle Hoy, curator Elise Lammer, and art historian Gabriela Christen, supplement the images.