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Olivier MASMONTEIL

In 1996, Olivier Masmonteil entered the Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where his desire for figurative painting was met with opposition from some of his professors, who, like many at the time, advocated its demise. Far from making him give up, these confrontations pushed him to question the origin of this controversy. He traced the history of art in search of the first appearance of the question and discovered that this debate is far from contemporary.

From Pliny the Elder to Raphael, the death of painting has been declared many times. However, each time, it resists and transforms itself, drawing from these quarrels the seeds of its renewal. Then begins for the young artist an exploration of the history of art, he frequents libraries to discover ancient and contemporary painters. In parallel, he draws inspiration from the works of Gérard Gasiorowski or Markus Lüpertz and builds his personal mythology. This is developed around three subjects that will never leave him: the landscape, the history of art and the fantasy of the horizon, of travel.

Today, Olivier Masmonteil's works - which leave room for abstraction by confronting it with the figuration of landscapes - testify to this same visual passion that has guided him since his beginnings and that devours his pictorial compositions.

Biography

Born in 1973 in Romilly-sur-Seine, Olivier Masmonteil is a painter based in Paris but whose activity unfolds through numerous travels. 

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

  • 1990-1996 / Académie des Beaux-Arts Jacques Gabriel Chevalier, Brives, France
  • 1996-1999 / Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, France 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

  • 2021 / «La peinture dévoilée», Maison des Arts, Châtillon, France
  • 2020 / «Sérial Couleurs», L’Artothèque, Caen, France
  • «Masmonteil, des horizons si grands», Suquet des artistes, Cannes, France
  • 2019 / «Paysage», Galerie Thomas Bernard, Cortex Athletico, Paris, France
  • «De la ligne à l’horizon», Scène ouverte, Paris, France
  • 2018 / «L’espace des métamorphoses», Cité des Arts, Chambéry, France
  • 2017 / «Diane à la chasse», Schloss Gabelhofen, Fohnsdorf, Austria
  • «Les Baigneuses», Les Rencontres d’art contemporain, Cahors, France
  • «De Gimel à Ushuaïa», Château de Sédières, Clergoux, France
  • 2016 / «Portrait», Galerie Dukan, Saint-Ouen, France
  • 2015 / «Diana bathing», André Simoens Galery, Knokke, Belgium
  • «Olivier Masmonteil. Peintures», Chapelle Saint-Libéral, Brive, France
  • «What a wonderful world», Galerie Dukan, Leipzig, Germany Memories, 
  • Fonds cultuel de l’Ermitage, Garches, France
  • 2014 / «A week and a day in Prague», Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, Czech Republic
  • «The Courtesans», Galerie DX, Bordeaux, France
  • «The Memory of the Past», Galerie Dukan, Paris, France 
  • 2012 / «Intimate Suites», Andre Simoens Gallery, Knokke, Belgium
  • «Chapter II: The Pleasure of Painting», Galerie Dukan, Paris, France
  • «From One Horizon to Another», Château de Jau, France
  • «Place», la galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, Ontario, Canada 
  • 2010 / «Olivier Masmonteil», Klare Ferne, Institut Français, Berlin, Germany 
  • «Olivier Masmonteil», Centre d’art contemporain, Abbaye Saint-André, Meymac, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS – SELECTION

  • 2021 / «ONN#6, ouiouinonon», 24Beaubourg, Paris, France
  • 2020 / «Over the Rainbow», Red Bull Hangar 7, Salzburg, Austria
  • 2019 / «Thinking about Landscape», Galerie Albert Bourgeois, Fougères, France
  • 2018 / Galerie Provost Hacker, Lille, France
  • 2017 / «Perfumes of Women», FIAC, Chambres à part 13, Grand Musée du Parfum, Paris, France
  • 2016 / «Painting», Galerie des jours de lune, Metz, France 
  • 2012 / "Plaisirs de France", Baku, Azerbaijan and Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 2010 / "Des Paysages et des Figures", Station 7, Marseille, France
  • 2009 / "Le murex et l’araignée", Hôtel de ville, Aubusson, France 
  • 2008 / "Délicatesse des couleurs", Hangar 7, Salzburg, Austria
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