Through the Looking Glass
Julien Graizely’s painting immerses the viewer into an urban universe. Comprised of gestural brushstrokes, drips of pain, and contrasting colors, his works are inhabited by high-speed vehicles or characters enjoying the beach, often times superimposed over one another. In each of these works, the composition is created with a precise point that attracts the eye and captivates the attention – whether through with the light or a detail or the colors.
Julien Graizely prefers to work on paper. He explores. He plays with space, time and knowledge which he masters and diverts by a lively and free gesture. From paintings to delicate drawings with infinite lines remains the contrast, the light and the vibration. Contrast of the lines. A graphic line, sure, empty but vibrating silhouettes outlined with graphite, superimposed moments. And then, the impulse of the gesture: the scrawl which erases, the scratch which hides or fills, this thick and powerful black line which cover the head.
Julien Graizely was born in 1980 in the Ardennes, France. He furrowed through different places in France while he was growing up and received his education in art metalwork in Avignon, visual communication in Royan, Ecole Boulle in Paris after having obtained the “Prix du Travail et des Apprentis” in 2001. Julien Graizely lives and works in Royan.
Aliona Ortega
Miami, July 2023
Somewhere as beautiful as before
With this new exhibition, Julien Graizely continues to question the codes of representation like accelerated movie scenes, the artist questions the passing of time. His intuition is not to focus on a particular narrative ideas blend with one another, along the work process. The presence suggests the disappearance of the subject, like remains left in a landscape or in memories.
Julien Graizely’s practice consists in building multiple layers of motives and textures : a neverending process of adding and erasing. Sometimes there is barely anything left on the canvas. Nothing really ? Not exactly as the vibant colors. He intertwines flamboyant colors with graphic motives : figures then appear through the composition and open a highly narrative dimension, filled mystery and untold.
Julien Graizely’s recurrent themes – landscapes, beaches, deserts – all have a some sort of empty neutrality in common. And a sharp line of horizon. They are peaceful places where light and bodies may express themselves, meet, escape from one another, look at each other. « When light is bright, the sky is always high », Julien Graizely says. Some trees may been seen in his paintings, pine trees sometimes disguised as Floridian palm trees, with a graphic style and imagination reminiscent of his numerous trips.
When it comes to color precisely, he asks himself : « the yellow, always the yellow, why is that ? What does this particular color have to add to my pallet ? It is not that often used but French historian Michel Pastoureau names it the color of future and prosperity. When I use yellow, I feel more inclined to loose control and let what I have on my mind simply exist. I am not afraid of spoiling, ruining, redoing, erasing, writing and facing. My characters used to turn their back to the viewer, now they look at them straight in the eyes. They speak and write to them. Those short sentences, puns or even song titles are usually written on the walls of my studio or left on tiny pieces of paper. This time I decided they had a place in my paintings. A possible way to explore new places ? »
Olivier Waltman
Paris, February 2022
Waiting…
« What to do, what to paint after such a peculiar 2020 ? For his fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, Julien Graizely aims to question our world, as frozen and dark as it appears and wonders what kind of reality his artistic practice could oppose to it.
In the midst of a time that held its breath, he saw the opportunity of a possible contemplation. The vast natural landscapes of the Charente region where he lives, the pine tree forests in Landes (South-West of France) where he endlessly wanders as well as the houses of the Atlantic shores helped set the frame of his new body of works. But the artist also decided to immerse himself anew in the lights and colours that he discovered during his residency program in Miami the previous year, 2019. As if driven by a vital force, the bright and contrasted tones, reminiscent of his time in Florida, bring life to the void and the silence of those French landscapes. They convey an energy with which the artist’s gesture expresses a strong and tormented movement.
Out of this unexpected production, Julien Graizely selected ten works that not only speak about immobility and wait but also of strength and expectation. His joyous expressionistic style gives a prominent importance to the motive : the imagination may freely spread out and reach fictional, and – why not ? – romantic territories. Thus, Julien Graizely’s work reasserts the capacity of the painting to open a mental space, sensitive, vibrant, most intimate and full of possibilities. »
Olivier Waltman
Paris, January 2021
Surexposure (Overexposure)
In this exhibition by Julien Graizely, the young artist pursues an exploration of themes that have underlined his work since the beginning of his artistic career: the temporality of time and the imprint left by an individual on both landscape and memory.
Similar to accelerated film scenes, the oeuvres of Julien Graizely reveal a dual dynamic: firstly, concentration, and secondly, expansion. His work focuses on the passage of time and fleeting moments. He paints and erases his subjects to create a superimposition of forms that reveal various moments in time. The presence and disappearance of the figures are overlaid with the artist’s memory, representing Julien Graizely’s allegory on life. Concentrated on a collection of paintings that depict the human condition, the artist transforms these illustrations into momentary yet essential instances that allow the viewer to access the most intimate memories of the human condition.
The artist presents a world filled with rich sensations, bright and powerful lighting, a generous—almost rapacious—approach to drawing, and a sensuality that evokes beaches where bodies are liberated and exposed in a vibrant environment.
The title of the exhibition, Surexposition, describes the flux of ideas and lines in Julien Graizely’s creative process. The cinematographic influence is evident in the use of framing and lighting that recall film stills. The artist demonstrates a strong interest in drawing and the composition of super-exposed images.
Paris, September 2018
