Francois L'Hotel

Born in Paris, François L’Hotel studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des
Arts Décoratifs of Paris, a course of studies which he describes as both
academic and subjective. The son of a garage owner, he will always maintain
a keen interest in « celestial mechanics » - his experiments will successfully
result in many inventions in the industrial field which he rejects by distilling
its objective approach.

In the meantime, he learns a vocabulary of his own by capillary action and
redefines the codes of the image. By returning to the photographic surface
he likes so much, he creates his pieces with intense sensitivity so as to
trigger the introspection necessary for contemplating the abstract.

François L’Hotel’s photographs deny up to the presence of the image itself
and endow the matter with an immaterial substance that attracts the
viewers and incites them to question the issue of detection, to read and
interpret the image in a haste that allows the eye to evade control.

The pictorial dimension of his work stems from his training as a painter.
François L’Hotel’s language is undeniably that of poetic emotion which he
assigns to his photographic worlds by transfering the absolute purity of
austere aesthetics ...

Born in Paris, he starts photography with his brother at 15. Together, they set up their first photo
lab in the basement of some Parisian apartment building.
At 18, he studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs where he stands out as
the youngest and one of the best of his class. He simultaneously studies painting, sculpture,
photography, architecture, scenography and video.
In the meantime, he works as a painter, photographer, lighting designer and scenographer. Being
a very artist, he becomes able to immerse himself into the business world.
In parallel with photography, he becomes interested in product design. He creates a new
economic model and carries out one of the most profitable industrial success stories of the 2000s
which he sells a few years later in order to devote himself exclusively to photography.
Living both in Paris and Athens, he then meets Louisa Karapidakis, an academician and curator
in Athens who exhibits his art works. He publishes “The esthetics of Chaos”, “Human Impact”,
“Cross the Line’, “Unknown Painter” and “Love Of Finished Days”.
He establishes himself as the photographer of the abstract and his fascination for the imaginary
and the symbolical relates him both with the G...

2017
* MELKART GALLERY - Paris / France - Love of Finished Days - Solo exhibition - June 27 / July 14, 2017
* XENION 2017 - Chania / Crete - Group exhibition - December 10, 2016 through February 10, 2017 - Curator
Constantinos Proimos, Ioannis Arhontakis
* PLATFORM PROJECT 2017 ”Fragment of truth” - Athens / Greece - May 20 / 25, 2017 - Curated by Louisa
Karapidakis
* ART ARCHIVES - Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation - Athens / Greece - June 9 / October 24, 2017 - Curated
by Louisa Karapidakis
2016
* FAKE® - Pulse Kolonaki Gallery - Athens – Group exhibition - December 15, 2017 / January 13, 2017
* ART THESSALONIKI - Melkart Gallery - Athens / Greece - December 01 / 04, 2016
* BLACK IS WHITE #2 - DEXIMI & Pulse Kolonaki Gallery Astypalaia / Greece - June 15 / September 15, 2016
* ART ARCHIVES - Museum Kresów - Lubaczów / Poland – Group exhibition - May 22, 2016 / September 15, 2017 -
Curated by Louisa Karapidakis
* ART ATHINA - STUFF Platform - Athens / Greece- May 25 / May29, 2016 - Curated by Louisa Karapidakis
* ART ATHINA - Love of Finished Days part#2 - Solo exhibition - Pulse Kolonaki Gallery - May 25 / May29, 2016
* STUFF + AMERICAN UNION - Athens / Greece – Group exhibition - May 18 / June 18, 2016 - Cur...