Presentation
Natacha Nikouline is a french artist born on April 21st, 1980 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, who lives and works in Paris. She is the daughter of an engineer who graduated from ESPCI (a well known physics and chemistry engineering school in Paris), and the granddaughter of an engineer who graduated from another distinguished engineering school, the Ecole Centrale of Paris, and was an inventor and manufacturer of industrial packaging equipment. She graduated with honors from the Ecole des Gobelins in Paris (the most renowned photography school in France). Then she studied visual arts at the Academie Charpentier, at its historic La Grande Chaumiere workshop, located in Paris.
Inspired by the work of Lev Tchistovsky and Irene Klestova, close friends of the family whose paintings were decorating the family house in Chantilly, she expressed herself from an early age with drawing, painting and photography. She was introduced to photography by her father who donated to her his Hasselblad 500 CM camera when she was 15. Bodies, especially her own, figures of death and wilted flora already constituted her artistic language at this time. She consolidated the foundations of her referential universe through readings such as « Messe des Morts », from Stanislav Przybyszewski, « Blesse ronce noire », from Claude-Louis Combet, with whom she regularly corresponds to this day, « Histoires de masques » from Jean Lorrain, « Là-bas » from Joris-Karl Huysmans. Several painters also influenced the development of her work, such as many of the flemish primitives, as well as Edvard Munch, Jean Rustin, Francis Bacon and Leon Spilliaert.
Her work consists in an evocation of passing time which manifests itself through organic and material decay, as well as manifestations of physical and mental suffering. She gives images representing still lives composed with mortuary masks, wilted flowers, rotten fruits, funerary objects - images that bring decrepit facades of abandonned houses out of the darkness, images of postures from headless anonymous bodies.
Her photographs, art performances, videos, and drawings have been displayed in France at Le Palais de Tokyo, at the No Found Photo Fair, and at the exhibition « Le Langage des visceres ». Some of her work is part of the official selection of several french art events such as «"Le Festival Instants Vidéo"» in Marseille, « Le Festival Cine Poeme » in Bezons, and was also displayed on the contemporary art channel on cable TV « Souvenir from the Earth ». A book « Fige, Emousse, la tete vide », published by Work is Progress, is dedicated to her photographs of bodies. It features an extensive supporting text written by Claude-Louis Combet .
Natacha had the opportunity to meet her public at the annual book fair of Paris 2014(Le Salon du Livre), where she was signing copies of her book. This book is part of the official selection of the event « Allez Vous Faire Influencer 2014 » in Toulon and also « Festival Circulations Paris 2016».
Moreover, she allowed the making of the movie « La vie est une goutte d'eau suspendue », both tale and documentary from filmmaker Hormuz Key, which was broadcast on the movie channel Canal+, by introducing him to her philosophy teacher and close friend Christian de Rabaudy. Natacha is featured in the movie and her presence evoques her artistic approach.
She also created an art performance with Laurent Dailleau, a composer and specialist in rare electronic instruments such as the theremin and the analogic synthesizer « serge modular ». This performance in which she stages her own body, was presented for the first time to the public at the photography studio « La Plateform » in Paris, and then also during the « 30/30 Festival des Formes Courtes » in Bordeaux.
Works by Natacha Nikouline are now part of the private collections of the rRussian ambassador in France, Mr Alexander Orlov; Pierre-Henri Castel psychoanalist, historian and research director at the CNRS (National Institute of Scientific Research) ; of Sarah Chiche, a writer, psychoanalist and psychologist ; and of Jan Söderqvist, a writer and movie critic.
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Inspired by the work of Lev Tchistovsky and Irene Klestova, close friends of the family whose paintings were decorating the family house in Chantilly, she expressed herself from an early age with drawing, painting and photography. She was introduced to photography by her father who donated to her his Hasselblad 500 CM camera when she was 15. Bodies, especially her own, figures of death and wilted flora already constituted her artistic language at this time. She consolidated the foundations of her referential universe through readings such as « Messe des Morts », from Stanislav Przybyszewski, « Blesse ronce noire », from Claude-Louis Combet, with whom she regularly corresponds to this day, « Histoires de masques » from Jean Lorrain, « Là-bas » from Joris-Karl Huysmans. Several painters also influenced the development of her work, such as many of the flemish primitives, as well as Edvard Munch, Jean Rustin, Francis Bacon and Leon Spilliaert.
Her work consists in an evocation of passing time which manifests itself through organic and material decay, as well as manifestations of physical and mental suffering. She gives images representing still lives composed with mortuary masks, wilted flowers, rotten fruits, funerary objects - images that bring decrepit facades of abandonned houses out of the darkness, images of postures from headless anonymous bodies.
Her photographs, art performances, videos, and drawings have been displayed in France at Le Palais de Tokyo, at the No Found Photo Fair, and at the exhibition « Le Langage des visceres ». Some of her work is part of the official selection of several french art events such as «"Le Festival Instants Vidéo"» in Marseille, « Le Festival Cine Poeme » in Bezons, and was also displayed on the contemporary art channel on cable TV « Souvenir from the Earth ». A book « Fige, Emousse, la tete vide », published by Work is Progress, is dedicated to her photographs of bodies. It features an extensive supporting text written by Claude-Louis Combet .
Natacha had the opportunity to meet her public at the annual book fair of Paris 2014(Le Salon du Livre), where she was signing copies of her book. This book is part of the official selection of the event « Allez Vous Faire Influencer 2014 » in Toulon and also « Festival Circulations Paris 2016».
Moreover, she allowed the making of the movie « La vie est une goutte d'eau suspendue », both tale and documentary from filmmaker Hormuz Key, which was broadcast on the movie channel Canal+, by introducing him to her philosophy teacher and close friend Christian de Rabaudy. Natacha is featured in the movie and her presence evoques her artistic approach.
She also created an art performance with Laurent Dailleau, a composer and specialist in rare electronic instruments such as the theremin and the analogic synthesizer « serge modular ». This performance in which she stages her own body, was presented for the first time to the public at the photography studio « La Plateform » in Paris, and then also during the « 30/30 Festival des Formes Courtes » in Bordeaux.
Works by Natacha Nikouline are now part of the private collections of the rRussian ambassador in France, Mr Alexander Orlov; Pierre-Henri Castel psychoanalist, historian and research director at the CNRS (National Institute of Scientific Research) ; of Sarah Chiche, a writer, psychoanalist and psychologist ; and of Jan Söderqvist, a writer and movie critic.
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When was Natacha Nikouline born?
The year of birth of the artist is: 1980