Introducing Patrice Palacio

Discovered by coincidence, in the home of an Art Traffik client, it was love at first sight. Since, Patrice has firmly become one of our selection’s “success stories”. Between private collections and museums (including the Paul Valery museum which has dedicated a retrospection show for two of his series), of international dimension, Patrice is in full ascension.

He remains « accessible » but for how much longer ? Unless you purchase one of his drawings ? But let’s talk about his work and his artworks…

Despite a rich and dense diversity, his identity revolves around two common denominators present in his artworks: the use of black and white and a certain minimalism that he pushes to the max, for an abstract view up close that becomes practically realistic from far away…

It has been a long process, such as using only a black and white color palette since 2017. But even before that, he was always frugal with colors in order to “not replicate nature. When I want color, I incorporate it as it is, taken directly in the wild…”as he would say.

« My approach is to try to represent complexity by using simple, elementary means. Such as the dot, the line, the map (one of my series), without color, only shades of gray. The dizziness comes as much from the view as the attention to detail and the realism in front of which we are setback, because from far the picture is clear, but as we get closer, it blurs and the image becomes a painting again. It is therefore a subtraction which multiplies the paradox of our points of view, humankind also being underlaid but not shown.”

As you have understood, beyond aestheticism, Patrice Palacio is one of those artists for whom painting makes sense and each artwork has meaning. His artworks challenge and interrogate you, just as he interrogates himself and provides answers with a certain irony, at times with provocation…pay attention to the themes and titles, there lays the underlying message.

Be that as it may, should you choose to overlook the meaning and the underlying messages embedded in his artworks, you will at least appreciate the undeniable esthetics…

This is what makes him a talented, renowned artist: the perfect association of flawlessly mastered technics, the meaning he associates to his artworks firmly inscribing him in his day and age, and the esthetics resulting from his intimate emotion transpired onto the beholder. For these reasons, we are particularly proud to be working alongside him for almost 5 years and his “first” clients are thrilled today…