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    15 May – 12 July 2025
    4 rue des Minimes, 75003 Paris

    Vernissage: Thursday 15 May, 4 – 8 PM
    Confessional by Oh de Laval at 5 PM & 7 PM

     

    We’re delighted to present I miss when people had secrets, the second solo exhibition by Thai–Polish artist Oh de Laval at our gallery. This captivating new body of work beckons you to explore the hidden chambers of your heart—unearthing unspoken yearnings, secret desires, and long-cherished dreams.

    Join us for opening night on Thursday, 15 May, when Oh de Laval will host Confessional—a one-of-a-kind happening inviting you to share your secrets—at 5 PM and 7 PM. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to reveal—and witness—the mysteries we all keep.

     
    Artist: Oh de Laval
    Press Release: EN / FR
  • In the era of TikTok confessionals, Instagram oversharing, and algorithmic intimacy, the idea of a secret feels almost obsolete. Platforms reward disclosure, not discretion. The mystique of privacy has become an aesthetic more than a principle. The title of Oh de Laval’s second solo exhibition at Galerie Marguo, I miss when people had secrets, resonates as a provocation and a lament.
  • For this exhibition, Oh de Laval draws on the aesthetics of the Catholic Church – opulent, coded, and shrouded in...
    For this exhibition, Oh de Laval draws on the aesthetics of the Catholic Church – opulent, coded, and shrouded in ritual. In The Sinner, a red-cloaked woman darts across the transept of a church, two glasses in hand, while a decanter of sacramental wine bleeds out behind her. Around her: plumes of smoke, and the frantic burning of incense; the floor, polished to a mirror sheen, reflects her escape in a crimson echo: a mise en scène of holy confusion.
     

    OH DE LAVAL

    The Sinner, 2025
    Acrylic on canvas
    100 x 80 cm (39 ⅜ x 31 ½ in)
    Inquire
  • Oh de Laval, To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides, 2024

    Oh de Laval

    To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides, 2024
    Acrylic on canvas
    160 x 180cm (63 x 71 in)
    Inquire
  • Catholic influence surfaces explicitly in The Temptation of Saint Oh de Laval, her reinterpretation of Michelangelo’s early work The Torment of Saint Anthony. Here, de Laval paints herself mid-air in a translucent negligee, surrounded by fevered cherubs with flushed cheeks and raging erections. The work is displayed behind a confessional screen, and viewers must kneel to see it. Art, in this context, becomes both a private act and a minor transgression.
  • Oh de Laval, Filthy pigs, 2025

    Oh de Laval

    Filthy pigs, 2025
    Acrylic on canvas
    100 x 80 cm (39 ⅜ x 31 ½ in)
    Inquire
  • Oh de Laval, The art of raw, 2025

    Oh de Laval

    The art of raw, 2025
    Acrylic on canvas
    94 x 94 cm (37 x 37 in)
    Inquire

  • Oh de Laval's “Secret Object” series depicts a range of illicit temptations or contraband across five candyfloss-colored, square-format vignettes, rendered in gauzy layers of paint.

     

    One snapshot reveals a charged pistol against a woman's thigh, concealed by the silk of her gown; another a dazzling whoosh of stolen jewels as a thief flashes open the lapel of his trench. Neighboring portraits depict a menacing chastity belt that displays the most forbidden and private of parts; a Barbie dream house of cuckoldry built almost entirely out of windows; and the exchange of a penis-stemmed rose, suggesting the giver's true intentions.

    • Oh de Laval Secret object, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in) 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Oh de Laval
      Secret object, 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in)
      43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Inquire
    • Oh de Laval Secret object, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in) 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Oh de Laval
      Secret object, 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in)
      43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Inquire
    • Oh de Laval Secret object, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in) 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Oh de Laval
      Secret object, 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in)
      43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Inquire
    • Oh de Laval Secret object, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in) 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Oh de Laval
      Secret object, 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in)
      43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Inquire
    • Oh de Laval Secret object, 2025 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in) 43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Oh de Laval
      Secret object, 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 15 ¾ in)
      43 x 43 cm (17 x 17 in) framed
      Inquire
  • ABOUT THE ARTIST
    Portrait of Oh de Laval. Photo: Eric Brain

    ABOUT THE ARTIST

    The work of Polish-Thai artist Oh de Laval is concerned with human behaviour: the decisions we make and consequences of our actions. In this spirit, each of de Laval’s paintings acts as a window into our inner characters, pleasures and fantasies. Among Oh de Laval’s inspirations, the most significant are human desires, secrets and our wild nature.

    Many of her paintings are dominated by “Venetian pink” which became her signature colour. To de Laval, everyone's life is mix of comedy and drama. With each artwork she challenges herself to express these ideas through painting, questioning the viewer to reflect on the purpose and seriousness of life.


    Oh de Laval (b.1990, Warsaw, PL) earned a degree in sociology from the University of Warsaw in 2016 before moving to London to pursue painting. Recent exhibitions include I miss when people had secrets, Galerie Marguo, Paris, FR (2025, solo); Take your pleasure seriously, Galerie Marguo, Paris, FR (2023, solo); Wild Things Happen in Stillness, Unit London, UK (2021, solo); Le jardin des délices, Galerie Claire Castaud, Paris, FR (2024, group); Technostalgia, Allouche Gallery, New York, NY (2024, group); I LICKED IT, IT’S MINE, Museum of Sex, New York, NY (2024, group); Hajimemashite, Bridge Mogura Gallery, Tokyo, JP (2023, group); Chronicles 7, Galerie Droste, Paris, FR (2022, group); Domesticity, Nassima Landau Art Foundation, Tel Aviv, IL (2022, group); My Secret Garden, Asia Art Center, Taipei, TW (2021, group); Xiao Foundation, Hong Kong, CN (2021, group); Ein Museum auf Probe, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, DE (2021, group); and Watchlist, Galerie Droste, Paris, FR and Unit London, UK (2020, group).

    Oh de Laval collaborated with Kali Uchis on the art for her 2020 EP To Feel Alive. Her work is held in the collections of AMMA Foundation (Mexico City, MX);  Dib Museum (Bangkok, TH); Rudin Dewoody Collection (Florida, US); Studio Berkhain Museum (Berlin, DE); Emergentes Art Collection (Lebanon); Xiao Foundation (Hong Kong); X Museum (Beijing);  and the Asymmetry Foundation (London).

     

    Learn more →

  • Inquire about Oh de Laval