Alain Du Pontavice

French artist living in London and South of France. My works relate to the many impressions I received and nurtured whilst living in South America, China and Europe where I came across extraordinary lands and people including masters. It is these impressions that surface in my oil paintings somehow ethereal. "Alain du Pontavice's multi-layered paintings defy categories. Are they Surreal? Symbolist? Abstract? Form? Yes, all of those things, but none of the labels cover the complexity of the work." Simon Tait, Art critic.

I grew up in Paris and started drawing at the independent art academy, La Grande Chaumiere, in the heart of the home of Impressionism, Cubism and then Surrealism, Montmartre, where my companions were mostly sculptors, and I spent hours with them sketching their work.

I studied Chinese calligraphy and martial arts, including Tai-Chi, with great masters in Miyun (North of China), Shanghai and Hangzhou. I did an MA in the Chinese mandarin language.

I was deeply impressed by textiles, field I worked many years in Asia, which introduced me to a world of colour as well as texture, elements that were to be layers for my own praxis to come. I was working with different materials, printing and dyeing, beautiful processes that take time to learn. It really exposed me to colour, and the ease that I had with colours afterwards came from that. I was surrounded by colour.

I studied with the influential artist Felix Lazo in South America who introduced me to automatic drawing, helping me to open the sub-conscious, and allowing me to go through layers of my mind.

Most recents:
- Solo exhibition - Clerkenwell Gallery, London (June 18)
- Gallery different, London (Nov 18)
- Edinburgh Art Fair (Nov 18) - Sheridan Russell Gallery

2019:
- Fresh Art Fair, Cheltenham (26-28 April)
- Cambridge Art Fair
- Gallery different, London (24-30 Oct)
- Edinburgh Art Fair
- Solo show in Paris (Oct 19)