MASSIMODECARLO is pleased to present Tremendous Ferrari Sheppard’s first European solo exhibition in Europe with the gallery. On this occasion, the gallery will also present Walking Together at its Parisian space, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique (from November 17th to 19th).

“Tremendous” scans the human condition through the lens of the subconscious in order to present viewers with something pleasant to contemplate.

Humanity in relation to nature is a common thread, weaving together the dreamscape. The figures and flowers represent the inner emotional life of a spirit.

The work delivers us to a safe space where we can examine important aspects of life we might not otherwise be able to appreciate - such as vivid landscapes of dreams.

The works convey a dreamlike state in which people and places become ephemeral.

- Ferrari Sheppard

Tremendous expands on Sheppard’s ongoing exploration into memorialising and honouring the beauty and delicacy of the human experience. Through poetic brushstrokes and brilliant gold accents, the works quietly yet defiantly radiate across the gallery space. New works on show see the artist exploring the natural world as a background for his trademark organic figures, rendered in acrylic and charcoal and elaborated with 24-karat gold leaf.

The series imagines figures in dreamscapes anchored by intimacy and domesticity, depicting moments of love, solitude, and leisure across mid-to-large-scale canvases. Sheppard scans the human condition through the lens of the subconscious to present viewers with moments of sublime contemplation.

In works such as Gate of Light, 2022 Sheppard captures a woman against a backdrop of bright flowers; in A New Day, 2022 lovers are depicted laying together in bed, cigarette in hand. Other works present groups of people in moments of suspended interaction; in Angels in Play, 2022 Sheppard shows a group of cheerleaders, some flying through the air.

Whether in solitude or company, enjoying moments of jubilation or quiet contentment, Sheppard’s figures appear in command, in control of any dreams they are manifesting.

Marking a departure from previous exhibitions, alongside figuration Sheppard includes works such as Autumn Flowers and Forget Me Not (both 2022), which present abstracted still lifes of flower vases. Shown in conversation with the wider works, they help promote a sustained sense of domesticity, romance and quietude.

Sheppard’s practice is inspired by Renaissance-era master storytellers of hyperrealism including Michelangelo and Caravaggio but heralds a new visual approach to figuration. Across large canvases he combines acrylic, charcoal, and 24k gold to illuminate, intensify and celebrate his subjects.

Like the vivid dreamscapes on show, his brushstrokes create a blurred vision of people and places that make the everyday become precious, ephemeral moments captured on the canvas.