Robin Penalva « Rock around Echo »
Presented by Galerie Michèle Hayem
Robin Penalva, born in Marseille in 2000, graduated from the Haute École des Arts du Rhin (HEAR) in 2025 with highest honors from the jury. He is presenting his first solo exhibition at Le Fil Rouge in Roubaix and has participated in several art fairs and group exhibitions, notably at PAD, C14, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, and Galerie Michèle Hayem in Paris.
Drawing inspiration from medieval bestiaries, folklore, medieval illuminated manuscripts, 17th-century demonology, and esotericism, as well as from the contemporary visual languages of dark fantasy and video games, Penalva has developed a distinctive graphic and sculptural universe populated by chimeras, two-headed serpents, silent dogs, and joyful demons.
Situated at the crossroads of sculpture, decorative arts, and furniture design, the seventeen medallions, mirrors, and a console table in ceramic and semi-precious stones, created especially for the exhibition “Rock Around Echo,” open a gateway into the artist’s imagination.
The material forms of waves, rocks, corals, shark teeth, mermaids, and crab claws here approach a kind of abstraction, where subjects are merely suggested and contours dissolve. Through this interplay of forms and textures, Penalva creates a dreamlike world that oscillates between the recognizable and the imaginary.