COLORSxSTUDIOS

Your painting style has been called “poetic” and “strongly feminine.” Would you agree with this description?

I find it difficult when my work is described as feminine. I get why people say it, because we live in a world where there are so many systems and definitions for everything, but I think it’s a bit reductive to classify genders. I try to avoid doing that in my work. Instead, I mix things up and play with both femininity and masculinity. I would say my work is more sensual than feminine.

Your paintings mostly portray nude women situated in surreal scenes. What interests you in exploring nudity in this way?  

I want to propose a new definition of the feminine figure in art. When you go to museums, most of the paintings you see were created by men. Portraits of women are often very sexualised, it is very limiting to be surrounded by them. I try to deconstruct these representations, both in terms of their themes and their lines and forms. I’m very inspired by the women in my life. I observe how they construct themselves in order to figure out how I want to construct my compositions.

Discovering Tamara de Lempicka’s work was like being struck by lightning. I was fascinated by how she brought together neoclassical painting’s use of light with cubism’s pure lines and forms. I originally trained as a graphic designer, so her powerful and effective use of shapes really spoke to me. Our paintings differ in terms of color though: she came from an industrial era, so the colors she used were very cold, whereas I like to use warmer tones. Other artists that have had an impact on my work include Matisse—though I discovered in an exhibition that he got a lot of his color inspirations from the Algerian artist Baya, so I have to give credit to her—and Georgia O’Keeffe. The colors she used and topics that she explored were very powerful, sensitive, and tangible.

Georgia O’Keeffe is best known for her large-scale studies of flowers. You also include floral references in your work, depicting the anthurium flower in your paintings to symbolize unusual beauty. 

Anthuriums are strange flowers. They are sensual but in a provocative way. They aren’t perfect. For me, imperfections are what make things beautiful and unique. Francis Bacon used to paint a lot of self portraits where he’d accentuate all of the worst parts of himself until he looked like a monster. I hope that in the future I will find the courage to move even further away from contemporary standards of appearance and be able to create a new definition of beauty.

Tell us more about the painting Béesau interpreted sonically. 

It was the ninth painting. When Béesau first saw it, he was really inspired by its dream-like aesthetic. He wrote a sonic story that reflected the viewpoints of the three different characters in the painting. He understood it so perfectly, no one else could have interpreted it better. Beesau’s not the best person with words, but when he talks with his music it’s the real deal.

Would you like to work together again in the future?

Of course! The collaboration-based format I used for my exhibition really worked. Every idea has its own timing, so I’m really excited to see what I’ll come up with in the future, and how I’ll find the right people to carry them out.

What are you working on right now? What are your ambitions for the future?

I just got back from four weeks in the south of France. The beginning of the year was so intense that I really needed to take some time to rest and find peace. That’s what I’ve been doing. Until now, I’ve always thought I’d like to be an independent artist without a gallery, but now I feel like I’m more ready to try and play the game of the art world. I think I’d like to try to do a few residencies, to have the time and space to create more, or to experiment with working with some brands. I really just want to keep evolving and creating for the right reasons.