A conversation with Matthieu Livrieri.
Tell us about your working process, are your portraits painted from life? Do you use photography as reference?
To start a painting, I draw from my image library, which I create as I go along. It's my raw material for starting a new painting. I take photos of people close to me without asking their permission. I try to take pictures of them when they're meditative, when they're alone, when they don't know they're being watched. I rarely paint directly from life, often taking photographs on the fly, simply with my cell phone. I find there's a lot of beauty in introspection, in the sometimes elsewhere, empty gaze of the people I paint.
I try to bring them to life a second time.
I like to approach photography with compositions, I don't hesitate to modify the reality around the person. A bit like theatrical composition and staging to achieve a desired composition and something that meets my expectations in terms of the created universe.
This photographic tool gives me more time for production, and allows me to make compositional choices. I don't hesitate to change the canvas all the time. Nevertheless, my approach to painting and drawing is changing. I see my drawing practice as something more spontaneous, and sometimes I don't go through the prism of photography.
New stories are created within the canvas. People move, environments change. Often there are many layers of paint, reflecting several paintings in one. I love this relationship with living, non-fixed paint. Just because you put paint on the canvas doesn't mean you freeze the subject for life. Everything evolves, changes and moves on the canvas. It's this kind of randomness that really fascinates me about painting.
Who are the people featured in your work, are they people you know?
The people in my work are only people I know: family, friends, people I've known for a while. I only paint people, friends, family, people I see regularly, because for me it's essential to know the people I'm painting. It's about creating an extension of themselves, offering a new vision and extending their personality onto the canvas. It's necessary for me to incorporate my personal vision of them, with emotion and sensitivity.
The people I paint change, my relationships change. The way I look at them changes too.
So, it's natural that as time goes by, the people in my painting are different. Nevertheless, there are some people who keep coming back, because they have an important place in my life, and therefore also in my painting. There is a kind of coherence and something autobiographical. I'm talking about life, the people around us, but it's through my own lens, so I'm obliged to work with people I know.
I think it goes hand in hand.
Many of the figures in your paintings are situated against a landscape or a cityscape, are the backgrounds based on real locations?
To create a painting, I often rely on several photographs that I gather to create an overall composition. Whether it's in the postures of the people I paint or in the landscapes, I often create collages from different viewpoints of the same place. This allows me to play with the notions of perspective and space in order to create a real collection of elements from the location.
Nature is very present in my paintings; it is practically there in every artwork, whether through forest landscapes, mountains, or plants in indoor scenes. I have a strong connection with the patterns found in nature, be it plants, trees, or leaves.
I enjoy creating systems based on repetition, lines, and colors to capture the vibrancy that nature brings. There is also something very meditative about natural landscapes; the people I paint are often immersed in their thoughts, as if in meditation. I find that natural landscapes allow for the creation of a timeless bubble of meditation and introspection.
In this exhibition, most of the paintings reflect landscapes of the places I encounter daily. For example, my hometown, Grenoble, located in the French Alps, is frequently depicted in my artwork, showcasing the appearance of mountains and the surrounding nature. Landscapes hold the same importance to me as the characters. I paint people because I interact with them, but spaces are also individuals in their own right, evolving with the passing years and travels…
You use a lot of high-chroma Reds, Blues, and Greens in your paintings, has your color palette changed over the years?
To start a painting, I always begin with an acrylic background. I enjoy using multiple colors or just one to create the desired ambiance and initial emotion. In my studio, I work in bursts. I usually paint several artworks during the same period, and then I take off for several weeks to travel and clear my mind, seeking new subjects. Every time I return to the studio, the atmosphere and my state of mind are different. I try to transpose that energy through color.
Looking back, I realize that my palette has changed significantly, each time reflecting a distinct period of my life. For example, last year, I focused a lot on outdoor landscapes, and green was very prominent. This year, I have painted many portraits and figures, and the vibrant red color quickly brings out the liveliness of the colors I apply to my paintings.
Tell us about some artists, dead or alive, that you feel have influenced your practice.
From a very young age, I was greatly influenced by Fauvist artists and German expressionism. I vividly remember visiting the Museum of Grenoble in France and discovering Matisse's "L'intérieur aux aubergines". I was captivated by the patterns, colors, and the flattening of space. I knew then that I wanted to delve into this kind of spatial exploration. Over time, I explored the works of Gauguin, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, David Hockney, Per Kirkeby, and Alice Neel, all of whom laid important foundations for the painting style I have developed.
As for more contemporary artists, I greatly appreciate the work of Mathieu Cherkit, Johan Papaconstantino, Igor Moritz, Séline Burn—artists whose work constantly nourishes me and helps me evolve and progress in my own artistic practice.