Matisse Mesnil

Matisse Mesnil is a visual artist born in 1989. He now lives and works in Paris, and regularly travels to his native Italy to pick up new ideas. He began his career as a set designer in the film industry, a background that still permeates much of his work today. His Italian origins are evident in his work, which displays popular iconography and unfolds a world inspired by his wanderings through the streets. Buildings, their ornaments, laundry hung from balconies... are all motifs that capture the artist's attention. His treatment of these subjects brings into dialogue not only the notions of nature and culture, but also those of setting and landscape.

Matisse Mesnil conducts experimental artistic research, questioning the concept of painting as a "window on the world". window on the world "of Alberti. He focuses on the frameinspired by his experience as a photographer which led him to observe the world through a more restricted frame: that of the lens. The frame is also a form of openness in our everyday experience.

The artist explores metalworkseeing in it an intense "pictoriality". For him, marks on metal are like scars, witnesses to the artist-object interaction. Using industrial processes such as welding and grindingMatisse Mesnil revisits landscape and still life. He creates patchworks of fabrics, creating textile works inspired by aerial views.

His love of textiles can also be seen in his treatment of subjects such as clotheslines. His recent creations aim to interact with the viewer and the environment, creating creating veritable stagings. The contrast between industrial technique and delicate subjects confuses the viewer and prompts him or her to ask questions.