Jean-François Conta

Jean-François Conta does not define himself in the immutable, in the expected. It is in the moment, variable and even destabilizing. His art is that of his breathing, of his emotions, frustrations, exaltations, which overwhelm him and impose themselves on him. He is inhabited by his art, he lives it physically and lets himself be seized when he is fully disposed to it, available and free to create. Entirely.

Each movement arises from an inner vision that almost escapes him to land in a confident gesture on the canvas. Reflection escapes this creation, which transports him out of time, out of place.

He is transported when his painting approaches his quest for the absolute. Distressed when the result on the canvas does not correspond to his dream vision of the work.

He therefore whitewashes tirelessly until he believes that the painting tells a story that deserves to be heard.

Born in Normandy, where he currently lives and works, Jean-François Conta has devoted the last thirty years to transmitting his artistic know-how to adult students, adolescents and children whom he has accompanied in learning to draw and painting, for the pleasure of progressing and creating or, for many of them, successfully entering a major art school.

The discovery of painting surprised him when he was 17 years old. After a demanding childhood, he will then literally engage body and soul in this new language, cathartic and salutary. Trained at the "Poulinière" art studio in Saint-Lô, directed by the painter Michel Clos, he continued his training at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Modernes et du Design Contemporain in Paris. Working in parallel with the Lorenzo workshop where he sculpts and draws, he also follows internships as an illustrator or designer and at the age of 19, his work is presented during his first Parisian exhibitions.

The invitations to present his work will multiply rapidly and will feed his convictions, reinforce his learning and punctuate his insatiable bulimia for work. Some exhibitions proposed in prestigious places, will make known and travel his paintings, acquired in particular by collectors, in France and in many foreign countries.

Today, after more than 35 years of presence with his students and the awakening of his dormant aspiration to resume the dialogue with his paintings, Conta tries to tame, to tame this fire and responds once again to the call of his creativity, of its intrinsic need to express what has remained in the making for so long.

Conta's complete satisfaction with his work is an illusion, so high are the author's demands on himself. His academic skills give him an impressive ease of creation but he paints to speak, to say, to himself and perhaps also to others but above all without any aim of seducing.

His latest works, however, reveal a freshness of colors and a new freedom presaging a certain letting go and a joyful and welcome audacity. The latest series prove it, transported in vibrant light and joy, they celebrate the painter's return to his art, fully.

The approach to his practice is visceral. Meditative and ecstatic, the creation goes through a lively, sharp, assured and choreographic gesture, so much the body is completely impregnated with this trance. His physical investment is total. Painting is danced, jerky and rhythmic. The movements follow one another quickly and the layers of paint are superimposed in rhythm.

The canvases are multiple, and teem with details that the eye who lingers there will be able to discover.