We are pleased to announce Refuge Poétique, the long-anticipated second solo exhibition by Delphine Desane with Luce Gallery. Opening July 16, the show presents a selection of new paintings and an installation that recalls the environment of the artist studio. Deeply autobiographical and brimming with iconographic details, each painting addresses relationships—with herself, her son, and her grand return to her native France. The work displays the artist’s new appreciation for hue, depth, and extended narrative while maintaining her popular elegant portraiture motifs. Viewed collectively, these paintings radiate a colorful ‘warmth’ and offer poetic reflections that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant.

A French phrase, Refuge Poétique translates to “poetic refuge”, referring to a tranquil place of solace where the mind can escape daily hardships through poetry— or in this instance, the poetic qualities of painting. As this solo show marks a pivotal stylistic shift in Desane’s practice, the title aptly describes her personal desire to create a haven for deeper introspection—one that explores the layered dimensions of identity and legacy within the context of her rich heritage. The show serves as a lyrical and aesthetic summation of her recent emotional and intellectual journey.

Her compositions, once characterized by stylized figures and abstracted landscapes rendered in a restrained Fauvist palette, now adopt a more realistic approach. Naturalistic portraiture, shading, and volumetric depth define this new phase, alongside detailed symbolism and iconography drawn from personal memories, spiritual symbolism, and cultural heritage. From the traditional compositions of Virgin and Child in Christian iconography to vivid chromatic harmonies reminiscent of the post-impressionist Paul

Gauguin, the artist has sought out traditional French references to embrace a more expressive visual language to better communicate the complexity of her emotions on canvas.

This shift was shaped in part by her relocation from New York City back to Paris. While living in New York, Desane was drawn to the minimalism of Donald Judd and Isamu Noguchi—an aesthetic that mirrored her pandemic-era experience of urban solitude and provided visual relief from the challenges of co-parenting and fast-paced rhythms of city life. For Desane, emotions needed to be conveyed simply, distinctly, and efficiently on canvas. In contrast, her return to Paris prompted a deeper reconnection with nature, culture, and memory. The resulting works lean into organic form and layered narrative, moving away from

minimalism toward intimacy, fullness, and self-reclamation.

In Sleeping Beauty—one of the show’s most emblematic and arresting paintings—a woman in elegant repose appears in slumber, her head resting gently on her arm. Behind and surrounding her, a lush mango tree unfolds into a dreamscape where a distant French provincial home emerges. Within this imagined world, layered symbols reflect Desane’s ideal sense of ‘home:’ the mangos, a staple on her Haitian-immigrant family table; a peacock, a common sight in French parks; an airplane overhead, alluding to her proximity to an airport and current day job; and blooming cherry blossoms, a nod to her fascination with Asian aesthetics. Solid black biomorphic shapes call to mind the surrealist forms of Jean Arp, whose work she regularly seeks out on museum visits. Painted in rich, tropical hues, Sleeping Beauty radiates ‘warmth’—a home-like sense of comfort that Desane seeks both personally and within her practice.

Dreams, a recurring motif in her oeuvre, here become more vivid, grounded, and reflective of her present interests. Here, the viewer is invited to explore this inner landscape, and in doing so, consider their own dreamlike escapes of ‘home’.

The strength of Desane’s artistic practice lies in its fearless openness to journey inward. Her work is a site of self-exploration—a space where the complexity of identity as well as its internal and external judgment are exposed for all to contemplate. She dares to expand her identity beyond simplistic labels and embrace its layers and constant state of flux by conveying a more personal message through her paintings. By confronting these themes in a visually lush, symbolically rich language, she not only poses existential questions for herself but also creates space for viewers to contemplate their own interior lives and perhaps the ways they are perceived by others. In this way, her work forms a Refuge Poétique—a place of rest for the soul amid life’s perpetual reckoning with identity.

Delphine Desane (b. 1988, France) is a painter and sculptor whose portraiture interweaves autobiographical elements of identity such as motherhood and Black womanhood within broader diasporic narratives of African and Caribbean heritage. A self-taught artist, she rose to prominence after her work appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia in January 2020. Her work has since been exhibited internationally, including at Canada and Pace Gallery (New York), Taymour Grahne (London), PENSKE Projects (Los Angeles), and Luce Gallery (Torino). Her paintings are held in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) in Marrakech, and numerous private collections across Europe and the United States.

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