Vogue 1 (2018) Painting by Michel Debray Chauvin

Michel Debray Chauvin is deeply nurtured and driven by his passions. Passions that always have led him to discover new paths, questioning to experience a certain representation of alterity, vision of aestheticism.


An interwoven life…

Born in 1962 in Saint-Nazaire, he has met and has been inspired by naval constructors, has visited refineries, met Brieron people… Randomly this has given birth to a passion of Architecture. Not close to painting…but not so far.
He studied in Nantes where he once again made an impression by his drawings and wishes of painting, by his willingness to create.
There he found a deep inspiration and a way to transcend the reality that brought him back to this brushes and pencils expressing glances, one’s glance, and another’s glance.


The Art Work

These creations of images, faces, faked portraits mixing slights touches of black and white colours, few colours drive force to the author’s irresistible desire to comply with others’ glance and to plainly face one’s glance on others’.
Large formats adopted for those portraits is an asserted choice that let us fully enter into the characters, into the scenes. The audience’s gaze dives into the characters’ - a mesmerizing one-to-one.

Choosing the right subject is also decisive. Thugs from faubourgs, unknown Mafioso, lawless rogues, in opposition to lawful revolutionaries, forgotten utopians - somehow some of them became popular icons.
This art work is abnormal, out of time, beyond set patterns. Though with a common point: violence of an initial gross image, even brutal, either from an anthropometric photograph of police officers or from a studio shot published in common magazines.

Black and red, red and black…Colours that emphasize and strengthen the scope: a bleak and sanguine power emerge from the paintings.
Decisive and strong brush strokes underline the facial features. We find them toughly real. The few paint-runs we can see underscore their dirt side, as well as the beauty of souls and glances.

Some of these characters may be staring at you - a certain face-to-face - with confidence and aplomb. A smell of death crossing the edges.
Others seem lost, away from us, avoiding any eye-contact, diving into their own world.

The whole Art Work of Michel Debray Chauvin is a journey. It will deeply question yourself and unwind your mind.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1962
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary French Artists