An exhibition of ink drawings by French contemporary artist Julien Vinet is opening on Friday.

The collection is about the intangible: the idea of a generic human body, the portrait of a protean and multifaceted humanity.

Vinet wanted to conjure a set of questions about gender, permanence, physicality, mortality and how “our cultural perception of the body shifts according to its depiction”.

He said: “I wanted to make the viewer enter a playground, in which, as they start to identify the body parts, they can draw a connection between them, recreating an anatomy, assembling and reinventing the presence of a body that seems to take on the aura of an artwork that changes subtly for each spectator.”

Vinet is a visual artist currently based in Berlin. Following studies in fine arts at Paris VIII and Visual Communications at Jean Trubert Art School, Vinet discovered the strength of black and white – a passion that lead him to Japan where he lived for eight years, studying calligraphy and engraving.

Deeply influenced by the local culture, Vinet’s chiefly monochromatic body of work conveys a kinetic depth, a constantly changing and layered representation of subject through fragmented and reconstructed line. His work has been the subject of several solo shows in Japan, France and Malta, and has participated in several international group exhibitions.

The exhibition titled Anatomical Terminology opens tonight with an aperitivo and DJ event from 6-8pm at La Bottega Art Bistro, 201, Merchants Street, Valletta. The exhibition will remain open every day from 10am until late until April 4. For more information, contact Lily Agius Gallery on 9929 2488. For more information, visit www.lilyagiusgallery.com.