Fabien Verschaere, artist

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
I am really pleased to introduce to you one of my best friends: a French emerging artist. The first time I discovered his work I fell in love. His works of art are figurative. He shows us a world based on a fantasy land where all the characters are created from legends, fairy tales, as well as his imagination. Monsters, clowns, fairies, ghosts coexist all together amid castles, 'smileys', and some objects from our daily life. On each of his works he represents himself somewhere; whether he portrays himself in a dark or saint-like manner.  The canvas can be disconcerting at a glance. The contrast between life and death, health and disease are depicted in his works. At first sight his work can seem to be very funny and cheerful, but his work is very intense, hard and interesting. You can't take your eyes of it and every interpretations are allowed.
He is a painter but also a sculptor and a designer. He uses Posca and paints most of the time black figures on white background.

Hey Fabien, how are you today? Happy working on your next solo show at Enrico Navarra gallery in February in Paris? Tell us about this new exhibition...


In fact, as usual, it consists to show the last pieces that I produced for the last past months. I looked a lot the Mexican art and everything related to the Baroque art, classic or contemporary. I think American art becomes more and more baroque; American tradition  such as halloween or the imagery which can be found in the streets of New York all inspired me. I think my residency in NY that I had last year has been very helpful because I rediscovered all the things I love and I still want to explore through painting, as comics and popular arts. The exhibition's title is "sweet inspiration" because it reflects my own life and because it combines the excitement that I have thanks to my practices which mix my feelings with a practice codified and decoded. People have the key of what I want to express!

When I was with you at the atelier for the first time, I realized you paint without preparatory sketches and you usually begin in the middle of the canvas. Could you please explain us your process?


There is no any particular process in my work, it is a question of feeling and that is why I am still painting. Sketches are for the security of the artist and I take art as an active performance, a new look on the world each time I paint. At the beginning I directly painted on the wall in the museums which gave me confidence to create big compositions made without any sketches, just me against the wall. Wall became a friend, a mirror on which I tell my mental records which come from my travels and from my personal experiences.

When you were a student, who inspired you and has your style changed?


At the beginning I was inspired by Combas, Basquiat, Haring then I looked a lot Boltanski, Beuys and the american Minimalists. Then I worked on the Viennese actionists. Reflexion on the idea of the subject bring me to my actual work. One day I decided that there had only two different ways to paint:  represent the same subject all my life or try to paint everything the life makes me discover. I chose the second one.

What do you want to tell to the one who would like to make a comparison between you and the artists from the street (art), the graffitists... or even the comics?


I don't think I have a direct relation with street art. The only thing is I work with one acrylic felt pen stroke, directly on the canvas, and I give informations with a poetic way as graffitists do. The only thing I can understand which is issued from the contemporary art is the mix between mass medias, music, television, theater, movies, cartoons and everything which belongs to our world. That is why I want use everything from the street art to the Italian Quatrocento.

You are a painter but also a sculptor, a drawer and a designer. What is your favorite medium, the one with which you are more comfortable and why?


I am interested by all of these mediums, I touch, I try, I create... I have no preference I am like a child who discover every day what "to create" meaning...

Thank you so much Fabien! Good luck for the exhibition...
Guys if you like his work go for it but be patient I belong to those who bought the last paintings!