Francois Reboul, Dittico | Courtesy Francois Reboul

Chaos not as a result, but as a starting point. This idea lies at the heart of François Reboul’s From Chaos to Freedom, the second chapter of the project launched with Beyond Chaos, on view at Spazio SV in Venice from 29 August to 22 November 2026 and curated by Vittoria Brachi. A French artist living and working in Venice, Reboul looks to the tradition of American Abstract Expressionism and the New York School while using their legacy to develop a personal approach. His paintings emerge directly on the canvas, without preparatory drawings: gesture, matter and time guide a process in which control and spontaneity remain in constant tension. The exhibition unfolds across the two floors of the former Scoletta di San Zaccaria around two large recent diptychs. On the ground floor, luminous fields of gold are crossed by cobalt blue; upstairs, reds, blues and purples meet black and ivory marks, creating a more dramatic visual landscape. Works of different formats and periods surrounding them reveal the various directions taken by the artist’s research. The connection with Action Painting, from Jackson Pollock to Willem de Kooning, remains evident, but Reboul shifts the emphasis from gesture itself to the transformation that gesture can produce. From Chaos to Freedom thus becomes an exploration of painting as a space in which disorder can be traversed in search of an equilibrium that necessarily remains provisional.

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