Mathieu DEVAVRY

His artistic approach

After having worked for a long while on figurative themes, Mathieu Devavry, an outstanding instinctive painter keen to unlock the door to a world of freedom, has gone on to make his painting a means of transcending current anguish.

Through the spontaneity and uniqueness of his art, he questions the unsubjugated nature and purity of movement through water and ink. Movement becomes a symbol of freedom but also of permanency.

It would be fair to describe his painting as a form of meditation.

Technique

Midway between tachism and action painting, between formality and informality, Mathieu Devavry produces colourful landscapes featuring abundant expressionism.

Mathieu Devavry has a preference for ochre earth colours combined with organic paint partially made from wine, champagne and beer.

The successful combination of the atomic and volatile black with this sense of depth ensures that Mathieu Devavry's work is a constant voyage of discovery.

Biography

Born in March 1981 in Reims, Mathieu Devavry spent his childhood in Verzy, a small village in France's Champagne region in the heart of the Montagne de Reims area. He began painting while still very young by watching his father.

Originally from a winegrowing family, Mathieu Devavry began working in the vineyards. He quickly returned to his painting, gravitating toward the so-called decorative art of trompe-l'œil, a technique he learned at the BLOT school in Reims between 1999 and 2001.

When he arrived in Besançon in 2002, he met various contemporary painters and abandoned trompe-l'œil. He has worked with numerous techniques in the Chouechart collective including graffiti, portrait painting, stencilling, slam and radio among others. He has produced a number of performances during cultural events, all of which focus extensively on figuration.

After four years spent in Besançon, he moved to Lyon in 2006, devoting himself to a very personal painting style based on spontaneity and inwardness.