Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design
is proud to present...
AD SOMNIA (to the dreams):
The Wandering of a Dream-Passer
Céline Lyaudet (France) solo exhibition
Ad Somnia is a reference to the ancient rite of incubation (to lie down in Latin), which involved sleeping in a temple or sacred place (spring, caves or forest) to receive visions and answers from a divine entity during dreams.
This practice, widespread in many cultures, is also reminiscent of the shaman's journey (as for example the Dream-man figure in the Ugrian culture in North Europe). Céline Lyaudet felt deeply related to these ancient rites in her own dream experiences and dived into those images and symbols as a great source of inspiration for her painting work.
She takes notes of her initiated -lucid -dreams and visions for years, but it's only recently that she’s begun to glimpse topography, different types of places, wildlife, inhabitants, and spirits. From chaotic and fragmented episodes at first, a clearer path has begun to emerge. Céline realized that she has access to a world to explore. It's a world where Moon and Sun coexist. Where, in a bird body, she’s able to fly or as a wall-walker, to hide in the House of the Abyss. The Dream World creates its own images but also of names, signs or numbers. Sometimes, it took times de understand some of their cryptic meanings, sometimes they stay mute and secret.
Céline’s body of work depicts these nocturnal journeys of visions. But the paintings are not illustrations of them, rather partial memories that must be pieced together from a single thread that must be woven to reveal the pattern of a tapestry. The world of Dreams and painting are very similar. The desire to see further is accompanied by a surrender of control in order to be able to See and Listen.
For a while, the visions or entities that populate the paintings often appear in the form of diptychs or triptychs. This gives her the feeling that they are establishing a dialogue with each other or that a balance must be established between two poles (as example: shadows/light). Some paintings are created under the aegis of the moon, the sun, or a comet; the spirits that inhabit them are therianthropic or ethereal entities.
Like the inhabitants of the paintings, the medium and color phases have evolved, allowing for new experiments in texture and intensity. She creates her colors materials like witches' brews, mixing pigments with water-mixable oil paint or casein binder to achieve the desired intensity or transparency. This change of medium allows her to layer paints and obtain an opacity that contrasts with the wash areas, giving the paintings more flesh. The composition is built like a living organism, bones, tendons, muscles.
From this need to assemble chaos were born sculptures experimentations as Fetishes and Spirits Vessels. They are inspired by the creation of charged objects in shamanic-type tradition, intended to embody spirits or ancestors intending to protect and to heal. The creation of these vessels arose during a time of great anxiety. Céline looked for a way to feel safe and peaceful by making receptacles to house protective spirits. Quite quickly, the vessels were given heads and limbs inspired by the entities encountered in dreams. Birds, dogs or anthropomorphic figures were sculpted in clay like the small domestic idols of ancient houses. The receptacles were woven from raffia, like small containers. Next came the assembly with symbolic and imbued materials such as feathers and shells. Finally, each vessel received a name that gave it life and a vow of protection.
Inspired by ancient rites from different cultures, Céline seeks to articulate her personal rituals free from any religious dogma. These Rituals of Self, give her a sense of belonging to a greater Whole. She doesn’t try to explain or understand everything, just to gain perspective and hoping to See the Path beyond the Tall Grass.
About the Artist:
Living in the Rennes area of western France, Céline Lyaudet was surrounded by art her whole life. She would watch her father, an artist as well, paint and sculpt from a young age.
In 2002, Céline Lyaudet is graduated from Fine Arts School in Quimper ,France and is majored in Set Design. She began to work as scenographer in 2004 for performing art companies until 2012.
Since 2013, she learned 3D modeling software and 3D sculpture as self-educated . Since she works as freelancer for scientific popularization projects for European and American Oceanographic Institutions and Museums of Natural History.
But it wasn’t until 2020 where she could finally call herself an artist and embarked on a new creative journey. She intends to embrace every aspect of it, without any limitations in practicing techniques. Celine Lauder’s driving force is inspiration, experimentation, discovery and curiosity.
Her first solo exhibition “Map of the Path” occurred in February 2022 in Anno Domini Gallery, San Jose CA, USA. She created for the artist reception, her first large scale mural on this occasion. This body of work attempts to capture and map her interior landscape and tends to bring out buried emotions and traumas
In 2023 she made her second solo exhibition “Language of the Birds” at Anno Domini Gallery, San Jose, CA, USA. This new body of work, elaborate through a year is about a deep exploration of these inner landscapes, the intangible entities -called Spirits- that inhabit them. The making of the paint, follows a ritual which participates to the connection with the spirits.
"All at once" her interview by Elliott Sky Case for Metro Silicon Valley newspapers has been published in March 2022.
She received an Individual Grant 2022 from Belle Foundation for Cultural Development in visual arts. San Jose, CA, USA.
Artist’s reception: Friday, April 3rd, 5–9pm
part of the South First Fridays ArtWalk SJ
Exhibition dates: April 3–June 13, 2026
Gallery hours:
Thursdays & *Fridays Noon–7pm, (*First Fridays 5-9pm)
Saturdays Noon–5pm
