A selection of paintings and watercolours by British artist Jane Harris (1956 – 2022) has opened at the MÉCA, a new arts centre in Bordeaux, celebrating Rococo Minimalism and the artist’s lifelong preoccupation with the ellipse.

Primarily working in oil, Harris’ prolific practice centred around her self-imposed rule of working with ellipses. Creating recesses and extrusions on the flat canvas, the works manipulate the ellipse to draw the form out to its extreme possibility as a long and thin extension, through to compressing it into an almost perfect circle. Building up three or four layers of paint, the pieces reflect light to create the illusion of something both solid, and immaterial. The resulting effect is almost a performance – the movement of light across the canvas as the forms push in and out against one another.


 

The exhibition is hosted by Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, a regional contemporary art fund which boasts a collection of works from global names including Diane Arbus and Jeff Koons as well as emerging and local artists, of which 50% are circulated around civic and educational buildings in the region. They are mounting it in their new HQ, the MÉCA – the Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture en Aquitaine – an imposing cultural centre behind Bordeux’s main train station which is a collaboration between Bjarke Ingels’ Danish practice BIG and French Architects FREAKS which completed in 2019.

Frac and other cultural institutions share the 18,000-square-metre space, a looping mass of a building defined by its central void that allows visitors to walk through en route to entering the building. Designed to incorporate public space, hard landscaping around the centre includes a large staircase and access to the inclining roof of the ground floor, both of which have been adopted by the local skateboarding community.




The top floor of the MÉCA is a warped floor plan that contorts around a central void, creating an overhanging gallery space that provides seamless views across the River Garonne. It is here that Ellipse, the exhibition of Harris’ works, is presented. Whilst the architecture has clearly been a challenge for the curatorial team with awkward acute corners, windowless exhibition spaces, and a general lack of wall space to exhibit paintings on, the uninterrupted view of the water in the main space establishes a beautiful relationship between the work and city. Positioned opposite to the windows, a diptych series named Familiars (all 2014) benefits from the subtly changing natural light that bounces off the water below and reflects off their surfaces throughout the course of the day.

Originally designed for a chapel, the Familiars form the heart of Ellipse – towering, otherworldly forms encapsulating Jane’s ability to manipulate colour and light to create dynamic abstract paintings from the flat canvas. Whilst one of the largest works exhibited, Captivators (2014), is displayed on the lower ground floor in the buildings main entrance, the lack of natural light limits the reception of the work. The same constraint can be said of the smaller oil and watercolours in the smaller 6th floor exhibition room that suffers under the building’s awkward design, resulting in a windowless room at the heart of the plan with a service elevator dominating the space.



Training at Bournemouth College of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, and finally Goldsmiths College, Harris lectured for over a decade before becoming an MA course leader in Fine Art at Goldsmiths. Relocating 100km East of Bordeaux in the Dordogne with her partner and son in 2006, much of Harris’ later work was inspired by the surrounding natural landscape of the French countryside.

However, an interest in landscape architecture and garden design can be traced throughout the artist’s practice. The formal design of Japanese gardens were an early source of inspiration, accompanied by the meditative practice of raking that creates fluctuating natural forms to emerge and then dissipate from the surface of the sand. Contrastingly, the ornate filigree details found in Rococo gardens were also an early research interest, with the painstakingly detailed ornate edges of the ellipses in the show drawing clear reference to both the simple minimalism of Japanese gardens, and observed Rococo flourishes. The works result in highly ornate, but very simple, natural forms, resonating with what American art critic Barry Schwabsky described as “Rococo Minimalism” in a 2007 essay on Harris’ work.



Ellipsis is the fruition of a collaboration between the artist, curatorial team, and museum, with the show only now opening after Jane Harris passed away in 2022. There is a clear tenderness within the presentation from all involved, and although it is too small to be considered a retrospective, the exhibition feels as if it it is celebrating a lifetime’s work.

Following the passing of the artist, the Jane Harris estate is represented by Freeny Yianni, CLOSE Gallery, and Prue O’Day on behalf of Jiri Kratochvil and George Kratochvil. Whilst her work may not be as widely recognised by the public as her contemporaries from the YBA generation, the show sets out to establish Harris’ legacy within British painting, recognising a lifetime dedicated to her understated and elegant practice.

Accoladed with numerous awards, fellowships, and residencies, the ambition of all parties is to continue showcasing Harris’ work, which  includes upcoming group shows Chromascopic at London’s APT Gallery and H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R at Brighton’s Phoenix Art Space, both of which take place as her works hang in Ellipse at the MÉCA, looking over Bordeaux.