Julien-G (French, b.1976) is a painter, printmaker, illustrator, and educator currently lives and works in New York City.

His early aspiration to become an artist was triggered by his love of comics and cartoons. The humorous aesthetic and sequential structure of these media left a strong impression on him. Later, as an art student, he rejected the contemporary academism and pseudo conceptualism of art school. Instead, he decided to learn directly from “the masters” and eventually find his own path as an artist.

In 2001 he experienced an epiphany, when walking the street and looking at a yellow mechanical digger spotted with rust, he was struck by its analogy with banana peels. That unexpected match became the cornerstone of his poetic and humorous way to address the world and his art practice. Since then, he uses apparently mismatching patterns to question both contemporary and archetypal subject matters, such as human condition, environmental, spiritual and social issues.

Julien-G studied art at Ecole Des Beaux Arts de Nantes Metropole, earning a BFA in 1998 and an MFA in 2001. He exhibits internationally and his work can be found in various private collections.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My work plays with contradiction, trying to find a cohesive way to deal with opposite forces: Drawing Vs Color, Narration Vs Abstraction, High culture Vs Low culture, Spirituality Vs Humor… My goal is to create friction between these elements and ignite interpretations in the observer’s mind. Like visual haikus where the “sacred” meets the trivial, my series function with a minimal amount of elements aimed toward simplicity. I usually pick my subjects for their archetypal potential, whether they come from popular culture, news or history. I try to twist them, make them collide and overlap.

My approach to painting relies on mixing media and imageries, using abstract visual vocabulary as well as pattern like figurative elements. So creating unlikely encounters of motifs and evocative shapes. The act of making is essential, the process of carving, printing, stenciling, applying paint meet this desire to have a hands-on approach. Experiencing the resistance of matter, and overcoming this tension is fundamental to my art making practice.

My creative thinking was informed by sequential arts like comics and cinema as well as by my encounter with museum artworks. It led me to multiply and decompose the surface… Using polyptychs has opened up a wide range of possibilities. Their ability to merge both time and space open up endless possibilities that I am still exploring from series to series.