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Biography Dominique Meunier (born in 1966) is a painter whose practice is characterized by a plastic and conceptual exploration of liminal territories, situated at the intersection of nature, spirituality, and the intimate. His originality is rooted in a deep technical mastery, inherited from the silkscreen industry and an early artistic education by his mother, a painter and draughtswoman, which enriches the textural and chromatic quality of his canvases. A major biographical event in 2000, an experience on the brink of life, marked a decisive turning point in his work. This "breaching of reality" generated a "collapse of certainties," revealing a transcendent "Light" and a profound sense of unity. From this "fracture of being" arose a "double gaze," capable of simultaneously apprehending the visible and its invisible counterpart, compelling painting to become a new language for expressing the ineffable. This quest, having reached maturity, was revealed to the public in 2018. His work aims to create an immersive visual experience that evokes the presence of the invisible. The intense exploration of Light, treated with a quasi-mystical quality and often emerging from a deliberate shadow, is essential, as is the work of matter which translates the interaction between the tangible and the evanescent. The landscape serves as a reference point, embodying memory and the thresholds where light battling against darkness symbolizes revelation. His paintings, presented as "portals" or "apocalypses" (in the sense of unveilings) towards transcendence and "luminous invisibility," invite the viewer to interpret the mystery of being and the world, engaging them to find a spark of Light in the interstice of their own history. It is a "painting-prayer" in homage to the beauty that surrounds us. His studio, located near Besançon (25), anchors his practice in a deep connection with the natural world, becoming that "alchemical crucible" where lived experience and suffering are transmuted into matter, color, and form. Dominique Meunier's work resonates with major concerns in contemporary art through:
This alchemy between assertive materiality, luminous landscape exploration, and powerful emotional and spiritual charge forges Dominique Meunier's recognizable visual signature. The relevance and strength of this artistic proposition have been recognized by critics and institutions. His work has been presented in France and internationally, rewarded on several occasions, and engages in significant dialogues, such as that with writer and poet Michel Lagrange (laureate of the Académie Française and author known for his collaborations with major artists like Pierre Soulages) for the work "Camera Obscura," highlighting the intellectual and spiritual resonance of his approach. His professional affiliations (Delegate Jura Académie Arts-Sciences-Lettres, Sociétaire du Salon d’Automne, member ADAGP, Fondation Taylor, Maison des Artistes) attest to his solid anchoring in the institutional art landscape. AWARDS 2023 - Circle Foundation for the Arts (CFA) Artist of the Year Award 2022 2022- Silver Medal landscape section International Art Academia World Professional Award. 2022 - Special Prize of the Jury at the great competition of the International Academy of Contemporary Art. 2021- Gold Medal International Art Academia World Professional Award "Art Academia World Choice". 2020 - Silver medal of the painting prize at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts - Paris 2020 - Award winner “Artist of the Future” by Contemporary Art Curator Magazine 2018- Public's first price - group exhibition (80 artists, 300 artworks) LIONS CLUB-Besançon, France Artistic Approach and Major Themes The Interstices of the Sensible, A Contemporary Alchemy of Shadow and Light.Dominique Meunier's work offers an artistic proposition of profound and unique resonance, transforming matter into a bridge towards the spirit and magnifying light through shadow. Each canvas is an "offering of light and silence to the memory of the world" and to its "spiritual rebirth," inviting the viewer to an existential and metaphysical experience that transcends pure aesthetics. His approach, at the confluence of abstraction and figurative suggestion, is guided by fundamental principles: * The Concept of the Interstice : The concept of the interstice is central and multidimensional, embodying existential and spiritual thresholds. It is the universal metaphor for resilience (the alchemy of lived pains transmuted into vital force), spirituality (painting as an act of prayer), and interiority (the landscape as a mirror of the soul). The interstice is not a void, but a "place of passage, transition, tension, and revelation." These "lines, veins, hollows" in the material or chromatic boundaries act as "thresholds" where the "fullness of the sensible" is accessible. It is there that the ineffable manifests and that "fluxes of light"—true "apparitions"—reveal a "glimpsed celestial identity" and the "divine in nature and in man," inviting one to "cross the veil of appearances" to feel the unity of the cosmos. * Materiality and Telluric Rhythms : Materiality is essential to this exploration. Dominique Meunier's matiériste techniques, through impasto, scraping, and pouring, "pictorially construct the interstice." They create depths and fissures evoking earthly roughness and geological strata, receptacles for "telluric rhythms" that anchor the work in the physical. The process, punctuated by "controlled accidents" and "intentional reliefs," confers agency to the material, creating a haptic experience. This material density constantly dialogues with the immaterial: mystical light emerges precisely from textures and interstices, revealing the "divine" in the "murmurs of light," and embodying the complexity of existence through these points of tension. * From Memento Mori to Memento Vivere: A Fundamental Singularity Dominique Meunier performs a significant transformation from memento mori to memento vivere, thus marking the very essence of his singularity. While dark colors and melancholic atmospheres evoke finitude and "wounds," this darkness is never absolute; it serves as a backdrop for the emergence of powerful light. Golden gleams and glimmers of hope act as a potent memento vivere, reminding us that it is by traversing the shadow that life, the sacred, and beauty are revealed with increased intensity, offering a "spiritual rebirth" beyond pain. The "Requiem for Earth and Soul" prefaces the "mysteries of metamorphoses," inviting "fidelity to this new reality." * Exploration of the Spiritual and the Invisible : Freed from dogmas, Dominique Meunier's paintings are "prayers addressed to a sacred nature," capturing "the echo of eternity." This spiritual dimension is omnipresent, inviting a contemplation that probes the mysteries of existence and connects to a transcendental dimension. The landscape, a mirror of the soul, becomes a support for interiority and metaphysical forces. This "painting-prayer" transforms the creative act into a meditation, guiding the viewer toward their own "luminous invisible" in an intuitive and sensory elevation. * Dialogue Between Figuration and Abstraction : The work proposes a subtle dialogue with figuration while maintaining powerful abstraction. Suggested forms (landscapes, figures) serve as anchor points before dissolving into color and texture, allowing for an immersion into interior landscapes. * Two Emblematic Series: "Franchissements: Between What Is and What Transforms" and "Suites Célestes of the Invisible and Apparitions" Dominique Meunier expresses his profound search for meaning in the face of existential dualities through a body of work structured around these two emblematic series. Each painting is conceived as a "skin of time and experience," a "ritual of stripping away and reformation" where the interplay of matter and light visualizes this incessant quest. The two series, "Franchissements" and "Suites Célestes," offer a dual reading of time and eternity. Landscapes—whether an tree as a bridge, a mountain as a place of elevation, the sea as an abyss of the unknown, or the sky as immaterial—serve as catalysts where resilience and spirituality manifest. The "Franchissements" symbolize the journey, the initiatory path, preparing the way for the exploration of the "Suites Célestes," which embody the destination or the state of being attained. This progression meditates on the surreal through an aesthetic of the indeterminate, where unreal lights and generous matter guide towards an inner "Promised Land." Imagination unfolds, abolishing the boundaries of the invisible and stimulating the viewer's imagination through visual ambiguity. This transformation embodies the shift from memento mori to memento vivere, where the awareness of death becomes a powerful impetus to fully embrace life and find deep, spiritual meaning within it. Dominique Meunier seeks depth in simplicity, illuminating the landscape to its spiritual dimension. His canvases challenge the individual lost in the ephemeral, imbuing his series with meditative echoes, free from dogma. The chromatic purity spiritualizes the shadow-light duality, revealing humanity's encounter with nature and the divine. His painting captures the polarity of being—that in-between space of life and death, wounds and hope—where light, intrinsically linked to darkness, expands our perception of the cosmos and our finitude, making the landscape a place of transcendence and revelation. Solo and Themed Exhibitions
Solo exhibition studio, Buthiers, France « Clarity » (2018) ; « Reminiscence and resilience » (2017); « Material and sensations » (2016) ; « The trace » (2015) ; « Song of return » (2014) ; « Path » (2013) ; « Memory and the sea » (2012) ; « Read in oneself » (2011) ; « Blue Addict » (2010) ; « Green Addict » (2008) ; « Crossing to the other bank » (2005) ; « Interval » (2004) ; « Fertile wounds » (2003). Participations in Fairs and Group Exhibitions (selection)
International Exhibitions (selection)
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