Carine Magescas
La Plage Blanche
5pm
7pm
America Woman
Bikini
Bohemian Beach
Beach Bohemians
Carmague
Carmague #2
One Wave
One Wave #2
Out of Time
Ray of Moon
Shore Break
Seul
The Surge #1
Montauk Night
End of Summer
Cotton Candy #1
Cotton Candy #3
Comporta Beach
Board Meeting
Line Up
La Plage Blanche
Themes+Projects is delighted to present the first West Coast solo exhibition of French Photographer Carine Magescas: “La Plage Blanche”, featuring Magescas’ minimalist seascapes and surf scenes, shot on some of the America’s most iconic surf beaches from Ocean Beach to Montauk, as well as in a remote area of Camargue in Southern France, and all sharing the characteristic of being slightly rough and un-crowded.
Magescas’ dexterity for sophisticated minimalism can be experienced within a single frame. Through delicate overexposure and an ability to strip the image to the essential she captures luminous haven of subdued serenity with a timeless quality. “I work a lot in over-exposure, often reducing the people in the photos to silhouettes in the light” says Magescas, “I like minimal compositions with a level of abstraction that allow thoughts to wander.”
La Plage Blanche Exhibition View
Pop Satori Series
Shimmer, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
43.5 x 63 in
Edition of 5
April in Tokyo, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Satin
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
43.5 x 63 in
Edition of 5
Low Tide, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
43.5 x 63 in
Edition of 5
Seto Sea, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Satin
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
43.5 x 63 in
Edition of 5
Pop Satori, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
43.5 x 63 in
Edition of 5
Seto Sea #2, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Satin
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
43.5 x 63 in
Edition of 5
Tokyo Burst, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
41.5 x 54 in
Edition of 5
Naoshima, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
41.5 x 54 in
Edition of 5
Dior-ama, 2023
Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Dibond Mount + Floater Frame
41.5 x 54 in
Edition of 5
Pop Satori
Carine Magescas’ landscapes silently vibrate and bring instantaneous peace. Through a transmutation she expertly masters, each of Magescas’ views of Japan distills the powerful and luminous sobriety of a haïku. A completeness, a feeling of joy. A perfect moment.
In her choices of captation, whether it's a simple brick wall along a river, a dusky boat slender as a line, the geometric rhythm of the posts of a bridge on the sea, or a winter branch on a sleek glass facade, Magescas captures the soul of Japan with tact and delicacy. Man-made structures at last in harmony with nature. We are suddenly transported in another dimension where human beings, tiny silhouettes, hold their breath. What the artist actually suggests, is a reconciliation. A remarkable proposition in our troubled world, a wisdom, a pertinence, which perfectly resonates with Rimbaud’s verses:
Elle est retrouvée. Quoi ? – L’Eternité. C’est la mer allée Avec le soleil. It is found.
What ? – Eternity. It is the sea gone With the sun.
-Catherine de la Clergerie, Author and Curator. Paris, April 2023
About the Artist
Carine Magescas is a French-born artist who gained notoriety with her large scale, overexposed, photographs of surf scenes and seascapes. “The Surge” and "La Plage Blanche”, her inaugural exhibition series, exhibited in New York, San Francisco and London is recognized as one of the first to mix delicate overexposure with an ability to strip images down to the perfect level to create peaceful and sophisticated scenes. The results are luminous havens of subdued serenity with a timeless and placeless quality that speaks to the universal, immersing viewers in self-reflection.
Magescas new series Pop Satori builds on her early work by blending reality and reverie in serene over-scaled landscapes where the human story, in its immensity and meekness, paradoxically comes alive when human presence is at its scarcest. Pop Satori is her homage to Japan, a place she first visited shortly after the Tsunami of 2011 and again in 2018 just before Covid and that she intends on visiting soon again.
The series include 9 works, all in limited edition of 5.