Aude Herlédan

Rosenberg & Co. is pleased to present Aude Herlédan: Dialogue Between Worlds, the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York. Herlédan works seamlessly between sculpture and painting, expertly balancing a contemporary sensibility with forms reminiscent of the pioneering styles of the early twentieth century. Bringing together drawings, sculptures, and works on canvas, this exhibition celebrates Herlédan’s depth of creativity and the exceptional quality of her recent oeuvre.

Aude Herlédan was born in Paris in 1966 and spent her childhood in Kinshasa, Congo. She moved between London and Paris in her adolescence and in 1989 graduated in graphic arts from the École Estienne in Paris. After completing her studies, Herlédan embarked on several transformational international endeavors. She lived in a community of artists in Manaus, Brazil and led artistic missions for the United Nations in Nairobi, Kenya, where she later co-founded a photographic laboratory for Kenyan journalists. Returning to Paris in 1992, Herlédan began designing campaigns for major international brands as creative director in an advertising agency. Throughout her intersecting careers, Herlédan has nurtured her artistic study and practice with diligence and contemplation, continually inspired by her past encounters with cultures and landscapes abroad.

Herlédan investigates the possibilities of artistic material to express profound meaning throughout her body of work. Pencil, bronze, and clay iterations of her Nzuri sculptures each reveal nuances that add layers of references within the form, and she repeatedly experiments with the interaction of media, such as gold leaf and lava dust, in monumental paintings she often describes as “landscapes of the soul.” Her unique dedication to exploring the reciprocal relationships between memory, material, and artistic inspiration is most directly expressed, perhaps, in Herlédan’s sourcing of antique frames, which inform the content of her paintings, and her singular “white material.” Alongside a paint manufacturer, Herlédan developed this material, seen in works such as Souvenirs épars and Lévitation, in order to evoke serene energies and emotions that emanate from the luminous, sculptural gestures of white emerging from her canvases. Ultimately, the artist’s arresting, expansive oeuvre invites audiences into the enduring inspiration the artist has found in her experiences of travel, culture, womanhood, and spirituality.