‘Disconcerting imagery:' A work of French artist Sandrine Llouquet at the exhibition Carne Vale at Galerie Quynh in HCM City.

HCM CITY (VNS) — An exhibition of new work by two French artists Nadege David and Sandrine Llouquet about the "poetic dimension to our human condition" has opened at Galerie Quynh.

The Carne Vale exhibition (meaning Farewell to Meat, according to Latin folk etymology) comprises drawing, sculpture and installation that "reveal the human condition through disconcerting yet strangely familiar imagery", a press release from the gallery said.

The farewell is "to the flesh, to our human physicality and materiality".

The artists also make reference to Carne Vale as a Carnival, "a costume festival of religious origins (where masks are obligatory) occurring before the start of Lent, during which eating meat was prohibited."

"Providing a visual diary of the tensions between human and nature, and of esoteric and imagined rituals, the exhibition digs into the very core of our existence," the press release said.

Born in 1975 in Poissy, David received an MA in political philosophy at University La Sorbonne, Paris, and an MA in Contemporary political philosophy, University of Paris VIII. She was a lecturer in sociology at University Marne La Vallee between 1999 and 2005.

The artist lives and works in HCM City. David's first solo exhibition, Experience Sweet and Relaxing Dreams, was held at Mai's Gallery, in HCM City in 2007. In 2014, she presented Ho®s-Sol (Soil-Less®), her first solo exhibition at Galerie Quynh.

Born in 1975 in Montpellier, Sandrine Llouquet has lived in HCM City since 2005. She graduated from Ecole Pilote Internationale d'Art et de Recherche – Villa Arson in 1999.

Llouquet's work has been exhibited internationally at institutions that include the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California; and Tate Modern, London. She has also participated in a number of biennales with Viet Nam-based art collective Mogas Station.

The exhibition at 151/3 Dong Khoi Street in District 1 will run until July 4. — VNS