The Hervé Di Rosa exhibition at La Malmaison in Cannes makes a good case for how accessible contemporary art can be.
This summer, Cannes’s flagship exhibition at La Malmaison extends an invitation to travel alongside Hervé Di Rosa, one of the most vibrant French painters of our times. “Mirages du Monde” (Visions of the World) does not simply fill the contemporary art gallery with 103 of his works created over 40 years, but with his spirit, always tuned into different cultures, forever breaking down limitations, categories, or labels.
Spreading out across three floors, and spilling onto the forecourt and the roof terrace, an exuberant mix of travel memories, impressions, provocation, and sheer joy unfolds at La Malmaison through 8 November.
Video via CannesWebTV on YouTube
Born in 1959, Di Rosa is one of the key names of Figuration Libre, the fiercely individual movement that emerged in France in the 1980s with a taste for comic-strip energy, streetwise imagery and the cheerful demolition of hierarchies. He was never interested in “polite” painting. From the start, he preferred hybrid figures, loud colours, and a visual language that seemed to borrow as much from the bazaar and the toyshop as from the canon, now generally known as les arts modestes.
“When I was younger, I really suffered from a certain pretentiousness in the contemporary art world,” he explains. “The adjective ‘modest’ is a reaction to that.” The MIAM (Musée des Arts Modestes) which he founded in his hometown of Sète in 2000, shows what this means: simply shifting attention toward marginal and peripheral creations, such as mass-produced objects, amateur paintings, devotional items, and popular imagery, that fall outside the realm of “High Art” as a way of encouraging a free and open exchange of ideas between high culture and popular culture.
Hervé di Rosa, Dirosouleau, 1985
Acrylique sur toile
245 x 202 cm
© Adagp Paris 2026
Di Rosa’s philosophy is also reflected in this exhibition. It develops a lucid arc through the artist’s universe, beginning on the ground floor with works from the 1980s, a formative period during which he developed his style that broke with the prevailing conventions of the time. His graphic energy already formed a rich and varied world, marked by pop culture, comic books, folk art, and everyday imagery.
The next stop brings together works inspired by the artist’s numerous travels. From Africa to Asia, from Eastern Europe to the United States, Hervé Di Rosa loves collaborating with local artisans and workshops to discover their techniques and expertise. In Vietnam, he experiments with traditional lacquer; in Ghana and South Africa, he explores painting on sheet metal; in Mexico, he works with sculpted and decorative forms drawn from local traditions. These artistic collaborations, at the crossroads of painting, craftsmanship, and pop culture, give birth to unique pieces where boundaries fade.
Photo © Mairie de Cannes
The imaginary road trip then comes to another halt on the top floor, showcasing recent works in which Hervé Di Rosa continues his pictorial explorations, blending new experiments with references to travel and the so-called modest arts. With time, Di Rosa’s imagination has become even more porous, more fluid, and more curious. Set in rooms that offer a sweeping panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea, the colourful paintings stand in stark contrast to the deep blue in the background, yet both co-exist harmoniously.
The sculptures in the museum’s garden brings the journey to its final destination. They reinforce the sense that Di Rosa’s work refuses enclosure. They want to leak into the open, catch the eye, interrupt a walk, and remind passers-by that art can be witty, unruly and physically present rather than sealed behind interpretive glass.
This particular energy is re-emphasized in the title Mirages du monde. Di Rosa presents the world as something that is refracted through experience: seen in fragments, translated across borders, reworked through craft, humour and memory. In his hands, the world is not a fixed map but a living accumulation of encounters, it can be painted, lacquered, stamped, sculpted, embroidered, decorated or made strange again. It is never one thing for long.
Photo © Mairie de Cannes
And this fits Cannes well, as the city moves decisively from a place on people’s radar for two weeks a year during its film festival to a serious contender among France’s high-culture cities. Gone are the days of well-made but safe shows. Since its major refurbishment and reopening in January 2025, La Malmaison has been writing cultural history with edgy exhibitions like Carole Benzaken’s Jam Session or Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Poussière d’étoiles that would not be out of place in Paris. Di Rosa fits that ambition elegantly with immediacy and substance. That he does regularly exhibit in Paris, and has shown his works in galleries from Amsterdam to Miami and New York City, is proof of concept of where Cannes sees itself going – to the world… but it also brings the world home.
And that, finally, is the larger circle the exhibition draws. Mirages du monde is about travel, yes, but not travel as spectacle or cultural safari. Images, techniques and stories are encouraged to cross borders and come back changed. The world Di Rosa lives in is a hybrid, fluid place of sharing, borrowings, translations, and reimagining. The result is a body of work that feels like an open invitation: to look again, to value what is usually overlooked, and to accept that the world is richest when it remains a little unpredictable.
If I have one piece of advice, it is not be afraid of contemporary art. The artist has made something that is accessible to enrichen the viewer.”
— Hervé Di Rosa
VISITOR INFORMATION
Mirages du Monde – La Malmaison, Cannes
Through 8 November 2026
Admission fee €6.50, concessions available
See detailed information about opening hours and guided tours here
VENUE DETAILS
Centre d’art contemporain La Malmaison
47, boulevard de la Croisette
06400 Cannes
Tel: +33 (0)4 89 82 24 45
Email: centredartlamalmaison@ville-cannes.fr
PHOTO CREDITS
- All photos and images courtesy and © Mairie de Cannes and as credited
- Video as credited
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