Free and Easy

The issues of global warming and the collapse of biodiversity are inseparable from Olivier Millagou’s creative process. In an era where consumerism continues its relentless march, he offers a counter-cultural approach. His works made from recycled materials question our relationship to the living beings. The birds, pets, flowers, and butterflies that often populate his work are an ode to simplicity and what is fragile in this world. In his upcoming solo show Free and Easy at Sultana, curated by Margaux Bonopera, Olivier Millagou presents a new series of Peintures Périmées (“out-of-date paintings”), delicate monotypes made with expired polyurethane adhesive that recall neo-classicism and Renaissance portraits; as well as Réemploi (“reuse”) a new series of aluminium sculptures. The latter are made from the counterforms of birds sculptures created by the artist for a public building. They evoke both modernism and the history of interior sculpture, its relation with taste and desire, while being “sublime warnings of an increasingly fragile present” (Margaux Bonopera). Olivier Millagou (b. 1974 in Toulon, France) lives and works in Bandol (France) since 2000. Through his contact with the outdoors, the sea and nature, he has developed an ecological working methodology, bucking the trend of the great material and technological excess of contemporary art since the 2000s. His work has been exhibited at a.o. FRAC Sud, Marseille (2025); Fondation Villa Datris, Paris (2020); Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers (2011); Palazzo delle Arti, Naples (2006); Palais de Tokyo (2005) and Musée d’Art Moderne Saint-Etienne (2005). His work is currently part of the MAC VAL’s permanent exhibition “Le genre idéal”.

Visit

75 rue Beaubourg

Paris, NY