Experience ActionSpace artist Julien Soret’s Gallery within a gallery
Each month, Artist Spotlight celebrates the unique voices of ActionSpace artists, this October we’re excited to shine a light on Julien Soret. His latest exhibition, Gallery within a gallery, invites viewers to explore not just individual works but Julien’s thoughtful curation and visual wit.
“Julian’s work is marked by a distinctive personal style and emotional depth. He skillfully uses bold, contrasting colors and divides the picture plane into multiple adjacent sections, each functioning like an individual display window presenting different characters, moods, or narratives. This segmented composition brings a clear visual rhythm and structure, reflecting his unique approach to spatial organisation and storytelling. His work is imbued with a sense of imagination while also conveying rich emotional expression and symbolic meaning. It reveals both his keen observation of the external world and his sincere response to inner experience. Julian’s sensitivity to colour and detail makes each piece a compelling articulation of his unique visual language.”
– Xiaojing Liu, Former Volunteer, ActionSpace
Julien’s work draws together strands of his recent practice, blending traditional art forms with contemporary influences. Like a magpie, he gathers imagery from across visual culture, from classical painting and street art to cartoons, and video games. These eclectic references are brought together with a distinctive sense of play, forming a unique visual language that explores how these seemingly contrasting worlds collide.
The exhibition title Gallery within a gallery, is a nod to Julien’s use of art history and exhibition spaces as both subject and setting. His vibrant mixed-media pieces are grounded in a deep commitment to draughtsmanship, often built through careful study of reference books. The result is work that feels both meticulously crafted and deeply personal.
About the Artist
Julien Soret has developed a distinctive visual language rooted in the world of cartoons. Drawing inspiration from his favourite animated characters and childhood toys, including objects like model cars, which he often brings into the studio as muses, his work navigates a space between the playful and the profound.
Julien’s imagery can be wildly comic or quietly tragic, often within the same piece. What began as individual drawings are now evolving into longer, more complex visual narratives, approaching the scale and ambition of feature-length stories.
About Artist Spotlight
Artist Spotlight is a programme that highlights the unique practices of ActionSpace artists from our three supported studios. It aims to profile emerging ActionSpace artists by providing insights into their influences and inspirations, as well as showcasing new artwork.
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Each year ActionSpace supports hundreds of learning disabled artists to learn new creative skills and to realise their potential as artists. Our charity’s vital work is only made possible by the generosity of our individual and organisational supporters.
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