The career of Joris Ghilini, a self-taught French artist whose work we discovered this year with great enthusiasm, is not devoid of a certain meaning. After studying law and a career in intellectual property, this art history buff left the profession to pursue applied research into the notion of iconography and its endangerment. From there, he set about producing art in a variety of forms, from painting and sculpture to site-specific installations. His work is rooted in his studio, a place of pictorial and sound experimentation where research and questioning of the notion of iconography form the essential basis of his approach. He doesn't hesitate to seize on the 'déjà-vu' or to turn the myth, the hero, or the sacred upside down, to demystify, divert, and weaken it... in order to tell a new story. From Picasso to Liz Taylor, or medieval religious icons, the great figures of art are transfigured; the real question remains that of the inexorable passage of time.

Joris has always been fascinated by art and its history, the events and influences with which artists have been confronted to provoke their own creativity and sometimes reinvent themselves: "More particularly, I like the element of mystery that surrounds certain pieces, the vanished pictorial techniques that are subject to speculation. I also like science fiction and, in general, anything that challenges our certainties, but also architecture, design and the people involved in it, which are an important part of my aesthetic approach."

The artist works mainly in wood, which he paints, sculpts and assembles, while remaining faithful to other techniques such as canvas and paper. He is often to be found in his studio, where he reworks and recycles some of his incessantly reworked pieces: "In fact, I see the creative process as a never-ending spiral: it's a way of life, a perpetual quest. Everything is a pretext for tirelessly producing and reproducing. My work evokes the passing of time and questions the notion of the masterpiece. I seek to create astonishment and arouse the curiosity of the viewer."

See all the works of Joris Ghilini