Julien Creuzet
© Spela Kasal
Born1986
Paris, France
OccupationArtist

Julien Creuzet (born 1986) is a French artist. He will represent the country at the 60th Venice Biennale and will be the first black man to do so.[1] Creuzet won Art Basel's 2022 Etant donnés Prize and was nominated for the 2021 Prix Marcel Duchamp.[2]

Early life and education

Although Creuzet was born just outside of Paris, in the suburb of Le Blanc Mesnil.[3] He and his family moved to Martinique[1] when he was 4 years old. While living in Martinique, Creuzet was exposed to Caribbean culture and artists by his father, an assistant nurse who loved art and cultural exhibitions. In 2006, at the age of 20, Creuzet returned to France to pursue studies at French art schools.

Work

Creuzet's work is known for retracing African Ancestry and commenting on French colonial history using digital avatars and the culture of the Caribbean. His work is biographical, personal, and political often incorporating performative aspects and music/song alongside his sculptural works thereby creating a complex montage in his exhibitions. He's known to incorporate poetry and story throughout his work.

In a notable solo show at the Parisian gallery High Art, Creuzet incorporated a historic newspaper article published in 1976 in Le Monde about a story describing a Parisian dinner at which white attendees were served by Black "boys and girls," the event being described as "the only voodoo temple in Europe"[3] as a point of reference for exoticism prevalent throughout France's colonial history.

In the same Paris show, mixed media works of large blacks heads crafted out of raffia bags were accompanied by Creole singing and beating rhythms. Additional sculptural / mixed media works included cloud-like circles crafted from breads and thread, and suspended sculptural forms filled with rice, beans, and other grains.

Creuzet is currently a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He holds a studio in Montreuil, a commune east of Paris.[3]

Artistic Process

Creuzet, during an interview with Artnet, mentions that some of his sculptures take several years to evolve, and often start as experiments and ideas that need time to come to their full realization. He considers the works fully formed and complete when the "sculpture escapes [him]" and he no longer feels like the sole author of the object.[3]

Notable exhibitions include

CNAC Grenoble (2023-2024)

  • Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2019) -- Solo
  • Camden Arts Center in London (2022) -- Solo
  • Manifesta 13 (2020)
  • Gwangju Biennale (2018)
  • Lyon Biennale (2017)

References

  1. 1 2 Lauter, Devorah (June 8, 2023). "Artist Julien Creuzet Wants Us to Question What We Know and Free Ourselves". ARTnews.com. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
  2. ↑ Harris, Gareth (December 9, 2022). "And they're off—France, Estonia and Lithuania first to announce artists for 2024 Venice Biennale". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sansom, Anna (March 8, 2023). "How French-Caribbean Artist Julien Creuzet Uses Creole Hymns and Digital Avatars to Retrace African Ancestry". Artnet News. Retrieved January 5, 2024.

Further reading


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