NARRATIVES OF INTRICACY: DRAWINGS BY JEAN-PIERRE NADAU

SEPTEMBER 10 - OCTOBER 17, 2026

Cavin-Morris Gallery is pleased to present new drawings by French artist Jean-Pierre Nadau in his first one-person exhibition in New York City.

In free jazz the extremity of the sound fills the air with an aural horror vacui.  The ideas are as close to natural spontaneity as music can get, pulling ideas of the past, present and future in a stream of consciousness that is a vivid immediate connection between players and Muse.

This soulful spontaneity is the driving rhythm behind the intense rush of idea and imagery in the drawings of Jean-Pierre Nadau.  He is not unfamiliar with the association of his work and contemporary improvised music.

In a recently published catalog, he says: Improvisation remains the central element in my practice, but it’s one that’s controlled through meticulous, rigorous, careful line work.

We can visually follow the improvisation.  Each mark sets not only a formal spark for the next mark but triggers the deeper conversation of imagery in the artist’s mind.  The continuity is in the general movement of the imagery traveling across the pages. The viewer fuses his/her reaction with Nadau’s visual provocations.  He successfully initiates jam sessions between viewer and maker together in ways that rarely repeat.

In his own writings, most notably in Dessins a Dessein (lelivredart, 2025) Nadau comes across as a wildly expressive storyteller.  Narratives, no matter how abstract, compress a vision and invite the onlooker’s participation.  Nadau’s stories, seemingly lighthearted, are made irrefutably complex by their density.  We invest time in moving across his pages slowly. The horror vacui continues off the page, reverberating behind our eyes.  He owns the world he portrays, there is no question about this; his agency and intelligence are always visibly manifest. 

Nadau is not mainstream, nor is he art brut or art singulier, he is vehemently Contemporary, he is naturally surreal, his visual music shrieks, murmurs or goes modal before it releases coherent melody, his marks are rhythms at the same time that they move against rhythm, his violent angles leave room for softer sensual arcs. His control of line feeds a cosmic sense of freedom and intricate movement.  He is non-mainstream to the maximum and the vastness of his vision is forever generous and whatever forms he chooses are orchestrated with perfectionist insight. 

For further information please contact us at info@cavinmorris.com or call us at 212-226-3768.