Simon Rulquin

b.1982 France

Born in 1982, Simon Rulquin studied at the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts. Fascinated by the techniques used by the artist Gerhard Richter, he paints and constantly works on the image and its representation in the classic form. The painting becomes an obsessive and meticulously mechanical work where control is paramount and playfulness fades away.

This in turn questions  “what is the role of painting today?”. After graduating in 2009, his travels took him to Austria and China, where he developed his practice between the studio, wasteland and nature taking each environment into account. Each environment favored or brought constraints to the space. He developed and enriched these aspects of painting indirectly, also by using different mediums. In China, he worked on the sculpture project <This Time Tomorrow> in a Shanghai metal foundry. On his return from Asia, he moved between Bordeaux and Vienna. 

He constantly tries to escape from the classical perception of the painting and of its medium. His techniques use everyday life elements and nature to create new possibilities.

Each product is a balancing act between coincidence and control, the creative gesture shaping the final piece. These processes evolve around the notions of accident, surprise, random, balance, and patience He performed several experiments that use games, memory or illusion. Combining and activating techniques playing with fire, water, movement in his paintings and installations, he achieves to create poetic images that lead to contemplation. In Vienna, he met and worked for Franz West and discovered that art and life are inextricably symbiotic.

Recently settled down in Brittany, he lives and works between Vienna and Brest.