BIOGRAPHY
Sébastien le Guen is a contemporary French painter born in 1971 in Paris. He trained as an artist at Villa Arson (Nice), and graduated in 1996. During his training, he met many artists he became the assistant (Ben Vautier, Jacques Villegle, Paul McCarthy, Philippe Ramette, Martin Kippenberger …).
His first solo exhibition Potlatch was organized at the Galerie Pierre Bernard in Nice in 1991; he exhibited his first works influenced by the Lettrist movement of Isidore Isou. Between 1992 and 1993, he was exhibited at the Air Gallery in Paris. In the summer of 1993, he went to New York, where for six months he assisted the artist D. Kolk, where he lives and works: he developed a very personal pictorial style characterized by collage, illustration and street borrowings. painting. From 1996 to 2002, he exhibited regularly in France and abroad (Geneva, Brussels, Chicago) and participated in several group exhibitions. 2003 is the invasion of Iraq. Le Guen is doing a conceptual exhibition at the Galerie Incognito in Paris, on the theme of depression – The Wound World – which is inspired by geopolitical news. In 2004, he won the “Medici Villa Out of Walls” Award with AFAA, and the following year installed his studio in Brooklyn, and presented his works at the collective exhibition “Jokes” at MAMCO (Geneva) under the management of Christian Bernard. Between 2004 and 2009, Le Guen shares his life between New York and Paris. During his years, he completed his training as a painter, developed his technique by drawing inspiration from urban and suburban culture, and created links with underground artists in New York such as photographer Terry Richardson. In 2005, he exhibited at BW Gallery in Belgium. It was also during this period that he executed several series of works on canvas covered with hospital plans (as a tribute to his father architect) revisiting, among other things, the popular iconography of the mass media (series “Amazing Apple “,” Amazing people “,” Catch 22 “&” More Catch 22 “). In September 2009, he returned to Paris in his studio rue Guénégaud. He is supported by the Galerie Nathalie Gaillard where he exhibits his chosen Fragments, collaborates with the artist Aurèle in the context of a solo exhibition – Constitution diary, and participates in May 2010 in the exhibition I love America (Studio 55) alongside American and European artists. Since 2010, Le Guen has been developing several series of mixed media works on canvases and papers inspired by comics (“Sponge Bob” series), advertising and the fashion world (“Ray Ban”, among others, “Zombie”, “Escape”), and continues a work, begun in New York, on the very large advertising posters of the Paris metro (“Rip off” series).
Since 1991, the works of S. Le Guen have been presented in about thirty solo and collective exhibitions in France and abroad (Germany, Chicago, Brussels). Two of his paintings were acquired by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Geneva (MAMCO). His works have also entered about thirty private collections.
text by : Déborah Boltz