Beyond the symbolic of individualism that he suggests and denounces with his representation of "Tuscan doors", its the reflection of an often over-structured society that he tries to cast out. Through repetition as main resort, Tapiézo offers an original interpretation of the alienation of man, prisoner of a universe of sand, colours and metal, only physical expression of his hampered freedom.

Rather uninterested in the hard headed intelectual aspect of his painting Tapiézo would rather stick to his several year old engagement with art-therapy that he has been firmly defending and wants to tell us about.

When art dwells with social action.

"After having won several French and European prizes and shown my work everywhere, I wanted to go beyond displaying and exhibiting to embrace a social commitment closer to my real self" admits the artist "so, today I can work with children who come from so called "risky" environments where the practice of art is quickly assimilated as an element allowing a child in difficulty to ... rebuild himself".

With them as with adults under reinsertion, Tapiézo proposes to break both conscious and unconscious barriers harmful to self development and confining the individual to a sort of blind alley.

But this fight dissimulates another will, one that should allow anyone not to be abused by the images that everyday life imposes. "Only practicing imagery lets one "decide" what he is looking at", hammers Tapiézo, off long ago on crusade to boot out of view the violent or mind-destroying stereotypes the television serves us daily. A commitment that says a lot about our man and is naturally present in his compositions.

There's a few days left for art lovers who would like to bath in the painter's universe before the departure of his work towards New York and the "Bibliothèque nationale de France- site François Mitterrand".

- Olivier Meissel -