It is precisely in dualities that Anne-Lise Coste’s art finds its power: between gravity and lightness, between impulsiveness and abidance.
Anne-Lise Coste’s works possess a strong sense of immediacy that comes from her approach to painting: she usually paints in one shot, unleashing all her energy, ideas, and intuition onto the canvas. The vibrance of airbrushing resonates with the vitality of her work, as well as adding a graffiti-like aesthetic that instantly invigorates the political aspect. On the other hand, Coste is not scared of accident or imperfection; polishing is an act of masquerading the nature of things.
The use of words in her work is sharp, to the point; no metaphor needed. Just like signs in demonstrations, her written works channel rebellion and discomfort, yet the messages are provocative. Coste takes ownership of slurs and curse words and, by hanging them on the wall, does not allow a way-out: we are confronted by their crudeness. On the other hand, angst within her work is often conveyed in a lyrical manner and frequently bathed in a bright palette that reveals a tense synergy between violence and beauty. It is precisely in dualities that Coste’s art finds its power: between gravity and lightness, between impulsiveness and abidance.
Anne-Lise Coste (1973 in Marignane near Marseille, France) studied in Marseille and in Zurich, after which she was based in New York, and now lives in Orthoux (South of France). Her drawings and texts have the immediacy of graffiti, and allow her to express subjective moods mixed with political criticism and literary sentences. With a dada-influenced language and intensely lyrical images, her work exudes irony, rebellion and emotion. She creates seemingly decorative compositions that actually offer us a catalogue of contemporary anxieties, where the immediacy of the gesture of drawing combines a strong poetic sense with an element of social critique.