Jean Claracq

Jean Claracq is a French artist born in 1991 in Bayonne, who currently lives and works in Paris. He is a painter of miniatures and icons, and his work is characterized by his contribution to the dialogue between painting and digital art.

Claracq's work is inspired by the people he finds on social networks, such as Instagram and Grindr, who are part of marginalized, culturally different, or gay communities. He is particularly interested in the relationship between these individuals and screens, and his work often features isolated figures in front of digital devices.

Claracq's work is also inspired by the history of old master painting, particularly schools from Northern Europe. He is attached to traditional techniques, such as oil on wood, and pays attention to the smallest details. However, he also plays with the possible reading levels and incorporates references that give his work multiple layers of interpretation.

Claracq graduated from Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2017 and has exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions. His recent solo exhibitions include Open Space # 7 Jean Claracq, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2020), Fondation Sisley (2020), and group shows Boys Don’t Cry, Le Houloc, Aubervilliers (2020), agnès b., La Fab., Paris (2020).

In his work, Claracq deals with issues of loneliness in the social media era, depicting scenes of everyday life featuring isolated individuals against broad infrastructures as an evocation of alienation. His work is often aesthetically reminiscent of video games, and architecture and its mathematical, atmospheric, and photographic qualities also play a central role in his work.