Hervé Di Rosa Brings His Colourful World to Cannes
If you’re in Cannes this summer, tear yourself away from the beach for an hour because La Malmaison has had a serious injection of colour.
Right on the Croisette, the recently renovated art centre is hosting Mirages du monde, les peintures d’Hervé Di Rosa, a colourful, playful and slightly bonkers journey through more than 40 years of work by one of France’s most distinctive contemporary artists.
Born in Sète in 1959, Hervé Di Rosa burst onto the French art scene in the early 1980s as a founder of Figuration Libre. At a time when contemporary art could feel rather serious, Di Rosa went in the opposite direction. His paintings were bold, funny and packed with comic-book characters, monsters, robots, graffiti and very bright colours.
And that spirit is everywhere at La Malmaison.
But what makes this exhibition particularly interesting is how much travel has influenced his work.
In 1993, Di Rosa began his Autour du monde project, travelling the world and working with local artists and craftspeople. Rather than simply visiting a country and painting what he saw, he learned traditional techniques and then used them to recreate his own wonderfully strange Di Rosa universe.
In Ghana, he worked with local sign painters, bringing his characters to life in the bold style of hand-painted African signs. In Vietnam, he discovered the delicate art of mother-of-pearl. In Miami, he worked with the Haitian community and explored the techniques used to make traditional Haitian Vodou flags.
His artistic adventures also took him to Israel, Benin, Ethiopia, South Africa, Mexico and Cameroon, amongst many other places.
The result is almost like travelling around the world with him. From one room to another, you see the same quirky Di Rosa characters constantly changing as they encounter different cultures, materials and traditions.
That's really the joy of this exhibition. Di Rosa doesn’t seem particularly interested in the rules of what is — or isn’t — considered “serious” art. Comic books meet folk art, graffiti meets traditional craftsmanship, and popular culture happily finds its way onto museum walls.
Painting is at the heart of the exhibition, but sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and tapestries also make it feel lively and surprisingly accessible. You certainly don’t need an art-history degree to enjoy it — in fact, that’s rather the point.
And the setting couldn’t be better. La Malmaison sits directly on the Croisette, so after travelling through Di Rosa’s colourful imaginary world, you can step straight back out into Cannes’ own world of palm trees, beach clubs and people-watching.
Mirages du monde, les peintures d’Hervé Di Rosa📍 La Malmaison, 47 boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes📅 Until 8 November 2026
Paris Popcorn verdict: Colourful, quirky and wonderfully easy to enjoy — the perfect little culture break from the Cannes sunshine.
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