Philippe Caurant

Sans Titre, 2009
oil and resin on canvas
50 x 65cm
unique

Graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Quimper in the early 1990s, Philippe Caurant belongs to a generation of artists who have rapidly assimilated and integrated the theoretical and institutional heritage of the French art scene of the 1970s and 80s, who have travelled abroad in search of a confrontation with foreign artistic scenes, in Europe or beyond.

After having followed the residency program of FRAC Bretagne and obtaining a post-diploma from the Fine Arts School of Nantes, Philippe Caurant left western France to make his first step in Paris. Another residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts allowed him to fit in rapidly in the Parisian art scene, participating in multiple exhibitions organized by Madeleine Van Doren (Credac, 1996), Herve Loevenbruck, or Alain Gutharc (1997).

After another residency in Rotterdam in 1995, within a structure shared with the Van Lieshout workshop, Philippe Caurant left again to the Netherlands in 1998 where he met such personalities in the art world as Chris Dercon, during an exhibition at the Salle de Bains of Rotterdam. A short time after, he migrated to Glasgow for two years, between 2000 and 2002. He met with artists from the School of Glasgow (Jim Lamble, Simon Starling), especially Callum Innes, who acquaintance would influence the full expression of his work when he returned to France in 2003.

Again living in Nantes, he began to create spray paintings, first on paper then on canvas. Exhibited in several solo and group shows (Project room with Jean Brolly, Cultures france in 2006, Donations Prassinos in 2007, Ring and Galerie RDV in Nantes in 2008), these works were published in a recent book supported by the French Ministry of Culture (with texts by Denys Zacharopoulos, Pierre Giquel and Xavier Noiret-Thomé) at the occasion of a major solo show at the Poggi, Bertoux Gallery in Paris.

Solo shows are planned in 2012 in Rotterdam (NL) and Nantes (FR).