Christophe AVELLA-BAGUR

"I’ll be quite straight with you – I don’t do science fiction, I don’t paint robots. When I paint I have in mind a long line of great artists who went before me, artists who affect my daily life, like old friends with whom I have a spiritual, even a mystical relationship. I paint people, because our human condition is the only subject that really matters. I don’t paint fantasies that only I can pretend to understand – no. My works illustrate today’s conflict between the standardized view of we humans, of the way we’re expected to think and live our lifestyles, and a human being who is still able to make his own choices, who is unique, who despite his flaws and weaknesses can still assert his individuality. My work combine two worlds, a world in which humans are soulless mass-produced creatures, all the same and therefore worthless and without purpose, and an another world, in which individuals, in spite of their weaknesses and clumsy efforts, are still able to make up their own minds and shape their own destinies. That’s why my works show two sides of a struggle, because it’s a desperate and bitter struggle, and neither side has won yet”. (Christophe Avella-Bagur).

On an ethereal background of white light Avella-Bagur shows us archetypal images of male and female bodies on which he paints a second layer of portraits in bright flesh tones that never sit easily in or on the model’s outline. The two portraits never coincide exactly, and in each painting the artist creates new juxtapositions. First he paints a smooth, “clean” picture that answers our expectations of mass-production, and then he gives us portraits of faces disturbingly distorted in the grotesque manner of a picture by El Greco or Goya. Christophe Avella-Bagur gives us an uncompromisingly contemporary version of painting, which while remaining firmly figurative, gives us a fresh look at human identity as depicted by the virtual world.

“I’ll be quite straight with you – I don’t do science fiction, I don’t paint robots. When I paint I have in mind a long line of great artists who went before me, artists who affect my daily life, like old friends with whom I have a spiritual, even a mystical relationship. I paint people, because our human condition is the only subject that really matters.
I don’t paint fantasies that only I can pretend to understand – no. My works illustrate today’s conflict between the standardized view of we humans, of the way we’re expected to think and live our lifestyles, and a human being who is still able to make his own choices, who is unique, who despite his flaws and weaknesses can still assert his individuality. My work combine two worlds, a world in which humans are soulless mass-produced creatures, all the same and therefore worthless and without purpose, and an another world, in which individuals, in spite of their weaknesses and clumsy efforts, are still able to make up their own minds and shape their own destinies.
That’s why my works show two sides of a struggle, because it’s a desperate and bitter struggle, and neither side has won yet”. (Christophe Avella-Bagur).

Avella-Bagur has never limited himself to canvases or painting, as he has shown in is performances at some of his exhibitions, and this time he will be showing a sculpture, a kind of shrine he has created, containing familiar elements of his work – two gray metal skulls illuminated by multicolored lights – and the subject he feels so passionately about (the struggle between individuality and standardization – the image of the skulls being repeated like mass-produced objects by mirrors inside the shrine), which makes this sculpture a kind of link between all the other works.

1968 Born in Avignon, France
Lives and works near Aix-en-Provence

Education
1991-1992 Master’s degree in Fine Arts, Université Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris
1988-1989 Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Université d’Aix-Marseille, Marseille

Awards
1997 Grand Prix de la Fondation Colas

Collections
Centre d’Art et Culture Borusan, Istanbul
Collection de la Villa Tamaris Centre d’art, La Seyne-sur-Mer
Mairie de Grande-Synthe, Grande-Synthe
Fondation Colas, Boulogne-Billancourt

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2017-2018 New Apostles, Galerie Richard, New York, NY
Musée Simon Segal, Aups, Var

2016 Conference exhibition : The portraits, Virton

2015 From 1993 to 2014, Galerie du Comble, Virton

2014 Galerie Richard, New York

2012 Floating Souls – Grand Funeral and Silent Prayers, Château des Templiers, Gréoux-Les-Bains
Floating Souls, Galerie Richard, New York

2011 La Châsse de l’Homme,Galerie Richard, Paris

2010 Christophe Avella-Bagur, Rétrospective 2004-2009, Fondation Carzou, Manosque
Centre d’Art La Villa Tamaris, La Seyne-sur-Mer
2009 Maison des Arts, Evreux

2008 Premium, Galerie Richard, Paris

2007 Faces F.S : Moratoire des vanités, Galerie Richard, Paris

2006 Figures contemporaines, Espace Van Gogh, Arles (avec Jean Lérin)
Face.FS., Musée Auguste Jacquet, Beaucaire

2004 Floating Soul, Galerie Richard, Paris

2003 Pray to the System, Institut Français, Berlin

2002 Sur le fil , Galerie Richard, Paris

1998 Pas de tricherie, Galerie Richard, Paris

1996 Le Don et le Retrait, Galerie Richard, Paris

1994 Galerie Robespierre, Grande-Synthe
Galerie Richard, Paris

1992 Galerie Richard, Paris

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2016 Real Truth, National museums of Shi Jia Zhuang (Heibei province), China
Ex-Peri-Mentation, LAC Art Center, Narbonne
La force de la peinture, Virton, Belgium

2015 The Selfie Show, Museum Of New Art, Detroit, MI
Works on Paper, artists of the gallery, Galerie Richard, Paris
Flux Art Fair, Corn Exchange Building, New York, NY
“The Selfie Show : An Art Exhibition of Self-Portraits”, The Museum of New Art (MONA), Detroit, MI

2014 Osten Biennial of Drawing, Skopje, République de Macédoine (avec Marina Abramovic et Vladimir Velickovic)
25 Years, Galerie Richard, Paris
Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris

2013 Documenta USA, The Museum of New Art (MONA), Detroit, Michigan
N.A.M.E.@40, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL
Head, Bosi Contemporary, New York, NY
Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris

2012 Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris
Les Braves 2, Galerie Richard, Paris
2011  Shanghai Contemporary, Altromondo Galllery, Shanghai
“Collection : une première sélection”, Centre d’Art Villa Tamaris, La Seyne sur Mer
“Enigmatic Fantasies” :Gallery Altro Mondo, Manille

2010 Oeuvres sur papier, Galerie Richard, Paris

2008 Art Amsterdam, Galerie Richard, Amsterdam

2007 French Touche, Villa Tamaris, La Seyne-sur-Mer
Slick 07 , Galerie Richard, Paris

2006 Taille humaine, Orangerie du Luxembourg, Paris

2005 My favorite things, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon

2004 Art Rotterdam, Galerie Richard, Rotterdam
Art Frankfurt, Galerie Richard, Francfort-sur-Main
Artparis, Galerie Richard, Paris
Art.fair, Galerie Richard, Cologne

2003 Qu’est ce que l’Art Domestique ?, CERAC, Galerie Richard, Paris

2001 Paris Art Gallery, Chiba, Tokyo

2000 KunstRAI, Galerie Richard, Amsterdam

1999 KunstRAI, Galerie Richard, Amsterdam

1998 Etat de nature, Galerie Richard, Paris

1996 The exodus has begun, Paris
Eclate-moi… , Paris
Salon d’art contemporain, Bagneux

1995 Salon d’art contemporain, Bagneux
Courant d’Art, Galerie Aréa, Deauville

1994 Salon d’art contemporain, Montrouge
Salon de la jeune peinture, Grand Palais, Paris

1993 Salon d’art contemporain, Montrouge