Dreamlike fabric

Philippe Abril

Born in Alès, France, Philippe became passionate about the world of photography and visual arts from a very young age, his passion led him in 1981 to obtain a diploma in typography and graphic arts in Grenoble. He worked for 25 years as a photo compositor improving his skills in photography, watercolor and photographic. He believes photography represents the most immediate mean of creating an image, he experimented the coloring of prints with translucent inks and adding touches of acrylic paint. As a child he became passionate about museum art by seeing his father's magazines and art books. Here came the idea of mixing old family photographs with the paintings of the masters. The result was a surprising, dreamlike, moving and fascinating dialogue between the anonymous and the masterpiece.
He is particularly impressed by the works of Velasquez, Basquiat, Rembrandt, Picasso and De Kooning.
The moment of creation is defined by Philippe as an encounter, a journey towards an uncertain destination made up of detours and surprises, sometimes even a struggle. What matters is the result, the crystallizations of the materials, the colors and the sensations determined by chance. He defines his images a search for structure, lively movement, energy that evokes atmospheres. There is a desire to control the light, the colors, playing with transparencies, drippings, rhythms and repetitions of patterns. The acrylic paint with its rapid drying allows control giving the compositions a textile aspect with a mix of techniques, collage, pastel, felt and graphite.
Philippe loves non-verbal language between signs and symbols, realism and non-figuration, “A successful work always retains a part of mystery“.