JÉRÔME DELÉPINE I SHANGHAI CULTURAL SPACE

AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE VISIBLE

EXHIBITION | 4 JULY – 6 SEPTEMBER 2026

The ICICLE Cultural Space in Shanghai presents At the Threshold of the Visible, an exhibition by French artist Jérôme Delépine, one of the leading contemporary painters of light. A selection of recent oil paintings on canvas, the exhibition plays with perception, presence and finitude. Sensory and metaphysical, Delépine’s paintings invite the viewer into what he describes as “a meditative state.” For over twenty years, Delépine has pursued a remarkably coherent pictorial practice. Born with a congenital visual impairment, he perceives the world through contrasts, masses and variations of luminous intensity. This singular perspective means that light in Delépine’s work is more than an atmospheric effect. It is a presence; the very substance through which forms appear, suspended between radiance and darkness. Vast skies, expanses of water and boundless horizons appear flickeringly in these compositions, but landscape is never the true subject. Built through patient layers of glazes and translucent veils of paint, his works possess a vibratory quality, evoking a reality still in formation, where forms hesitate between emergence and dissolution.

“The title of the exhibition, At the Threshold of the Visible, refers less to a boundary than to a state of indeterminacy in which the world, having just emerged from its primordial night, seems still in the process of being born. Sky and earth are not yet fully separated; everything appears to be taking shape, unfolding out of chaos. Tiny, evanescent figures occasionally traverse the pictorial space, expressing the vulnerability of the human condition.” Myriam Kryger, Exhibition Curator 

ICICLE CULTURAL SPACE | SHANGHAI
ICCF GARDEN, 2, HENGSHAN ROAD - XUHUI DISTRICT, SHANGHAI

JÉRÔME DELÉPINE

Born in 1977 in Massy, France, Jérôme Delépine lives and works in Cormeilles-en-Vexin (Val-d’Oise, France).

At the age of eleven, he entered the studio of painter Éric Lepoureau. Although his visual impairment prevented him from attending art school, it never diminished his vocation. On the contrary, it became the engine of his creative powers. From 2012 to 2019, he co-founded and led the Rémanence collective, bringing together painters, sculptors, writers and critics to organise exhibitions and produce artist books reflecting on the role of the human agent in the age of the Anthropocene. Since 2003, Jérôme Delépine has exhibited regularly in France and internationally. His works are held in public and private collections across Europe, the United States and Asia. 

An Evening on Earth, 2025, oil on canvas, 81 x 116 cm. Courtesy of the artist

An Evening on Earth, 2025, oil on canvas, 81 x 116 cm, close-up. Courtesy of the artist

Summer, 2025, oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Landscape, 2025, oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Countryside, 2025, oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Untitled, 2017, oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm. Courtesy of the artist

The Bank, 2024, oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Reverie, 2020, oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm. Courtesy of the artist

Glimmer, 2025, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm. Courtesy of the artist

SHANGHAI CULTURAL SPACE

The ICICLE Space, located in ICCF Garden, aims to foster encounters between artists and cultural practitioners from East and West, in the pursuit of a global community of art and culture.

2026 CULTURAL SEASON