Paris-based Amandine Urruty explains the cabinet of curiosity theme that appears in her work, saying that building a room of wonder is, in part, a surrealist exercise. “I tend to collect objects that I love, 90s toys, luxury vases, miniature chairs and a bunch of skulls. The Curiosity Cabinet is a decoration, and each of its boxes is a decoration within a decoration, with little people playing with little sketches inside.”
One of Urruti’s most intriguing cabinets of curiosities is “The Miracle,” an extremely detailed charcoal and graphite drawing on paper that pays homage to Raphael. It was originally produced for the 2019 Dorothy Circus group show Mother and Son.
“It was clearly a kind of Virgin Mary holding a little boy and surrounded by cute and creepy objects,” she said.
Both the mother and her son wear animal nose masks, a feature that appears frequently in Urruti’s work. Behind them, tiny vignettes emerge from the carefully organized clutter in the cabinets. A doll with the body of an adult and the face of a Cabbage Patch Kid is posed as someone or something, seemingly crawling out of a shelf behind her. A chalk-style drawing of a house emerges from behind a stack of dice, next to a skull with long straight hair. You could spend hours staring at “Wonder,” trying to decipher all of its strange scenes. “I wanted to depict a nuanced approach to motherhood, and confronting cuteness and fear was how I did that,” Uruti explains.
“The ghost has been my companion over the years as it can’t find its way off the stage. As a model it’s the creepiest, but also the most academic. There are references to Renaissance curtains and all my beloved ghoul characters.”
“I even remember having to start Miracle all over again because I wasn’t happy with the first version!” Uruti recalled. Eventually, it not only entered a group exhibition, but also became the cover of the artist’s latest monograph, Made in the Dark.
Every few years, usually when she has a solo show in Paris, Urruti publishes a monograph as a way for people to buy something during the show, even if the original painting is beyond their budget. “Each one of them is very different,” she said, adding that the project is often inspired by the book’s publisher. Urruti collaborated with Cernunnos on her sixth book, Made in the Dark, which Cernunnos included as part of an existing series alongside works by Mark Lydon, Ron English, Marion Peck, Muppan, Christian Rex Van Minning, and others.
“It had to be a big book, a retrospective of fifteen years of my activities,” Urruti explains. “So I decided to organize it in reverse chronological order, sending them over two hundred photos and asking different people to write words about my paintings and when I met them. It was a huge job and I’m very happy about it.” In the process of putting the book together, there were some surprises. Artist Stephen Blanquet, who worked with Urruti, wrote a poem in her honor. The famous French singer Philippe Caitlin was quick to respond. “It does have personal meaning for me because I started my public life by doing body paint for him at some shows and media appearances,” Uruti noted.
Models – Urruti’s solo exhibition at the Factory des Arts in Paris – coincides with the release of a monograph in which she collects more than 50 drawings, two of which date from 2019, most created between 2020 and 2023.
“As for the subject matter, it depends on my mood,” she said of the show. “The thing is, I wanted to make the portrait more precisely than before so I could make the shiny fabrics, satins and metals appear.”
A large graphite and charcoal work bears the same title as the exhibition. Among them, two models sit, draped in luxurious fabrics. “For me, the ideal model is covered with a sheet,” Urruti said. “This ghost stayed with me for years because it couldn’t find its way off the stage. As a model, it’s one of the creepiest yet most academic. References to Renaissance curtains and all my beloved ghoul characters. “The covered model seemed oblivious to the mess of toys and crockery lying around, not to mention the severed heads on the table beneath the disco ball.
