Mambo

In 2015, Mambo began a new series of abstract paintings in his Echo Park studio in Los Angeles. Because the concept behind these canvases was so different from those for which he was previously known, he decided to sign them with his first name, Flavien, instead of his nickname, Mambo. These works are variations on geometry, color, and texture, all stemming from a single gesture: a vertical brushstroke. They are the result of research conducted ten years earlier in Paris, as well as years spent as Sol LeWitt's assistant in the mid-1990s, from whom he learned techniques and observed the artistic process. By turns expressionist, optical, or minimalist, Mambo, through the name Flavien, playfully offers his own interpretation of styles he loves, reinterprets, and shares with others.

Among the artists he cites as influential to him are Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and many others.

“My interests lie in humanity, society, and nature. My works illustrate DNA, neurons, and synapses as a metaphor for networks, whether ecological or political, urban or technological. I want to reveal their similarities, their connections, and how interdependent these elements are, just like us humans."

“The “Strokes" series allows me to fulfill several desires at once, because depending on whether I compose the canvases arithmetically, geometrically, or intuitively, it requires, in turn, concentration, calculation, feeling... and my sessions take on sometimes meditative, choreographic, and variously enjoyable forms. I like the paradox between this repetition of brushstrokes, sometimes mechanical, and the multitude of small accidents, drips, and splashes that give the painting its life."