"Would you have come close to my paintings if the colors were as dark as the subject?"- Cécile Cornet
To mark the start of the new art season, Danysz Gallery is proud to present “Ils disent que c'est de l'amour”, the first solo exhibition by Cécile Cornet. Discovered by Magda Danysz for the precision and power of her work, the young French artist, born in 1995, embodies a new generation of committed artists—where painting becomes a tool for social analysis, intimate memory, and political expression.
Cécile Cornet builds a body of work at the intersection of sociology, everyday observation, and a strong feminist lens. For “Ils disent que c'est de l'amour”, she places the theme of domestic labor at the heart of her artistic inquiry. Her work questions the roles traditionally assigned to women within the home and challenges conventional norms of love and devotion.
The artist paints on a deeply symbolic surface: linen taken from her own grandmother’s bridal trousseau. Each canvas bears the silent memory of generations of women who moved from being “someone’s daughter” to “someone’s wife” without ever fully becoming subjects of their own.
Through her painting—where a personal, familial material meets a powerful intellectual framework inspired by Italian philosopher Silvia Federici, author of The Wages for Housework Manifesto—Cécile Cornet weaves together personal history and social critique.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
First holding a Master's degree in Gender History and later graduating from the Art & Image department at the Kourtrajmé school, Cécile Cornet’s personal journey has positioned her standing among a new generation of purpose-driven artists. Her artistic practice, at the crossroads of sociology and visual art, is the result of a long and thoughtful process in which research and observation nourish one another.
A self-proclaimed feminist, Cornet’s references and readings seem endless, ranging from Italian sociologist Silvia Federici to the Greek myth of Dibutades, including contemporary thinkers such as Titiou Lecoq. Her political stance is both the origin and the subject of her work. Her artistic creation questions the autonomous distribution of domestic tasks, gender hierarchies, norms of love and devotion, and dissects mechanisms of invisibilization. Her representations of the home — at times a space of intimate refuge, at others a theater of inequality — highlight the tensions between the personal and the political. Guided by this leitmotif, Cornet’s work fully embraces the spirit of the times and invites the viewer to engage in critical self-reflection.
