Le Chevallier’s Exotic Show
Megan Marquiss
“The Snapper, Millersville University Newspaper”
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Thursday November 21, 2002, p. 10

By the time I got to Sykes Gallery at 8:30 p.m., I was tired and I did not feel like viewing any artwork by some guy named Georges Le Chevallier. The night was frosty and dark; Breidenstein Hall was quiet and the gallery glowed like a bright nest from the dark building. I forgot how thirsty I was for art.

Le Chevallier’s work is in one word, stunning. At first glance, his bright paint and stripe-like panels might seem like a complex comic strip. Instantly, you might notice the pieces woven together with patterns, shapes and bright colors. But after a moment, you might also notice the intense political and spiritual themes – flags, stripes, languages, maps, death, sin, religious icons; a “modern rhetoric” on symbols and their meaning in our society. Le Chevallier seeks to bombard you with ideas, colors and questions that will break through the numbness in our culture that is the result of information overload. Essentially, he fights fire with fire. Le Chevallier is successful at breaking through the torrent of details that make up our lives, and forces us to take a step back, and look for the deeper meaning in it all.

In my opinion, this is the goal of all great modern artists – to force people to think. Art speaks to me, but if it doesn’t speak to you, then you can learn to hear it. What I do know is that art speaks to my soul. Now, I love modern art, because I see the webs of meaning that artists are beginning to explore.

Le Chevallier is bi-racial; his mother is Puerto Rican, and his father is French. He grew up in Puerto Rico speaking Spanish and spent summers in France, speaking … oui, oui, Français. When he was a teenager his family moved to southern California where he finished high school, and discovered his passion for art. After high school, he went to Madrid, Spain to study painting at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid and later received his Masters of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York City. It is clear Le Chevallier’s multiracial background, as well as his extensive world travel has had an important influence on his work. He often writes quotes in different languages on his paintings, such as Spanish, French, Hungarian and English. Personally, I think being multilingual is terrific, but that’s partly because I speak a little French, German, and Spanish. The languages, from an intellectual perspective, create a whole new level to Le Chevallier’s work. I believe it also reveals how certain themes are universal to humanity, in particular, Le Chevallier notes reference to patriotism, sex, sport and spirituality. So go ahead, use that extra half-hour in your day to check out the Sykes Gallery – you’ll be glad you did.