We were there: the opening of “The Yellow Grid” at the Maison Graphique

A residency in the middle of a heat wave

In July, Macula Nigra, an artist and screen printer from the Le Marché Noir studio in Rennes, came to spend a week at the Maison Graphique. The goal: to explore what the scanner of the duplicator, the studio's risography machine, makes possible. “Full riso, analog,” sums up Gwenaëlle. No screens: printed or blank paper that you crumple, fold, lay on the glass. A folded tray and the scanner's light are enough to produce a gradient.

The result is the micro-edition “The Yellow Grid”: 50 numbered copies, printed in one to four colors on 200 g Extra Rough paper at the riso_éticc studio, in September. Twenty-five are on sale at the Maison Graphique.

On the wall, a first

The exhibition is the second stage of the project, and Macula Nigra's first show. On the walls: a series of compositions made between 2025 and 2026 that combine monotype, screen printing, monotype on fluorescent paper, cutting, collage and assemblage. The artist draws from their own repertoire of signs and shapes, “like musical sampling,” and layers them. In the small sleeves set out nearby, there is more figurative work, but born from the same collage gesture: the two answer each other.

The project is part of France Design Week, which had just started at several venues in Le Mans; programs are available at the entrance. Gwenaëlle also thanked the studio's intern, who is on the project all month.

An artist from Rennes, a collective of seventeen

Macula Nigra works at Le Marché Noir, in Rennes: a large shared studio built around the printed arts, screen printing, engraving and risography, where seventeen members pool their means of production. The link with Le Mans goes back two years and the Riso Crew project, at the Créa'Lab: each year, Gwenaëlle invites artists from Le Mans and from another city, Brussels, Nantes, then Rennes, to produce an image and put together a small group show, for a single evening. “We got along well,” he sums up.

Who comes to see it? “A bit like the street,” he answers: regulars who know the place, and passersby who, during the installation, stuck their heads through the open door to chat. What he hopes for comes down to one sentence: letting people enjoy the images, “and see everything it can set off in someone's head.” Most of the originals are for sale, along with a portfolio of screen prints and the edition born of the residency.

A one-year-old venue, a five-year-old studio

The Maison Graphique opened a year ago on rue Nationale, but the riso_éticc risography studio has been in Le Mans for five years: place d'Alger, then the Créa'Lab, before this address with a storefront, open to everyone. Gwenaëlle comes from public and cultural communications, “for almost twenty years now.” The idea behind the venue: creative residencies for artists, exhibitions around the graphic arts, “an aesthetic you don't necessarily see everywhere,” spanning abstraction, photography, typography and work with color, plus training and workshops.

With each exhibition, there's a mediation session for school groups, who leave after an introduction to riso. And roughly one introductory workshop a month, with online registration: in the morning for parents and kids, in the afternoon for everyone from age 10. The dates are on the Maison Graphique's website and Instagram.

Coming back at night

The fluorescent inks react to black light. The day before the opening, the team tested it in the window: after dark, a timer will switch on the black light and the exhibition will read differently from rue Nationale. “It pops,” promises Gwenaëlle. A second reading of the work, without pushing open the door.

Getting there

“The Yellow Grid,” Maison Graphique, 90 rue Nationale, Le Mans. Through October 17, 2026: Wednesday and Saturday 2–5 PM, Thursday and Friday 4–6 PM. Free admission.

• The exhibition page
• La Maison Graphique · maison-graphique.fr