Nicolaï

It looks like a photo but it is not a photo but a meticulous airbrush job.

Nicolaï (Nicolas Bigo) was born in Lille in 1955. After studying graphic arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Tournai, he became interested in photography and then began painting in 1977.

His works are present in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Ostend, the National Fund for Contemporary Art in Paris, the LaM, Lille Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Art and Art Brut, the Cities of Sallaumines and Lille, the Banque Populaire du Val de France in Tours... They have been presented in many group exhibitions, notably at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in Paris in 1980, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille (Le Stade) in 1983, at the Hessenhuis in Antwerp, at the exhibition of the Prix Europe of the City of Ostend in 1986; in Lille, Lens and Tournai as part of the exhibition "Hommage à Tintin"; at the Natural History Museum in Paris... Among his numerous personal exhibitions, we can cite those organized at the Storme Gallery in Lille, at the Casino in Ostend, at the Cultural Centers of Cambrai, Garches or Raismes In 1999, as a laureate of the Wicar Foundation, he spent six months in Rome and was invited to exhibit his Italian work at the Palais Rihour as part of Lille 2004, European Capital of Culture.

His painting is situated in the field of narrative-type figuration. Beyond a Pop realism that tends towards an apparent hyperrealism, it is a fiction where the connection of recurring themes (architecture, furniture, animals, plants) induces a strange and timeless atmosphere. These surprising encounters allow us to question the boundaries, the porous ones between man and animal, those erected between the I, the you and the one in which they threaten to merge. The disturbing strangeness of Nicolaï's images raises the question of Man in his urban and contemporary solitude.

François-Xavier Lavenne, Center for Research on the Imagination, University of Louvain

Main personal exhibitions:

2024: “Le Minorelle" Gallery, Marcq-en-Baroeul.

2024: Grenoble Art Up, Galerie Artop, Lille.

2024: Lille Art Up, Galerie Artop, Lille.

2023: “Seaside Painting", Vicala Gallery, Béthune.

2019: “Bathers and Flowers", Galerie Artop, Lille.

2019: The Old Stables, Roncq.

2018: The Dominican Chapel Art Center, Carcassonne.

2012: Lille Art Fair, Collegiate Gallery, Lille.

2009: Gallery 37, The Chapel of Armentières.

2008: Westminster Hotel, Le Touquet.

2005: “Seaside paintings, blue period", Ernst & Young company, Lille.

2004: Kfé 37 Gallery, Villeneuve d'ascq.

2004: “Roman Fragments", Palais Rihour, Lille.

2003: “Jungles and Flights", Wasquehal Town Hall.

2002: “Roman Fragments", Espace Pignon, Lille.

2001: “Resorts and other places", Espace Prisme, Lille.

1998: Garches Cultural Center.

1997: Géry Spriet Gallery, Bondues.

1997: Louis Aragon Cultural Center, Raismes.

1996: Gallery 31, Lille.

1993: Jean Effel Cultural Center, Carvin.

1992: Touquet Gallery, Le Touquet.

1989: Jacqueline Storme Gallery, Lille.

1987: Sallaumines Town Hall.

1987: Jacqueline Storme Gallery, Lille.

1986: “Les Archers" Cultural Center, Cambrai.

1984: Jacqueline Storme Gallery, Lille.

1981: Samarcande Gallery, Le Touquet.

1977: Casino-Kursaal, Ostend.

Main group exhibitions:

2019: Sculptour, Beukenhof-Phoenix Gallery, Kluisbergen.

2018: The Parvis, Arras.

2014: Art in the street, Cité Nature, Arras.

2010: “Tempo di vita", Consulate of Italy, Lille.

2010: Contrastes Exhibition, Ensait, Roubaix

2004: “9 visual artists at the Grand Bleu", Grand Bleu theater, Lille.

2003: “Natural Histories", Museum of Natural History, Paris.

2003: “Natural Histories", Val Rameh Exotic Botanical Garden, Menton.

2003: “Natural Histories", Clères Park.

2001: “Journey to Rome", Hospice Comtesse Museum, Lille.

1994: Gallery 31, Lille.

1990: Galerie Platine, Paris.

1988: House of Culture of Tournai.

1986: European Painting Prize of the City of Ostend.

1985: “Tribute to Tintin", Dunkirk Museum of Contemporary Art.

1983: “The Stadium", Museum of Fine Arts of Lille.

1983: “Today's Great and Young", Grand Palais, Paris.

1982: “32 proposals for a warmer belfry", Palais Rihour, Lille.

1982: “November in Vitry", Municipal Gallery of Vitry-sur-Seine.

1981: Créteil House of Culture.

1981: Jacqueline Storme Gallery, Lille.

1981: Pierre Lescot Gallery, Paris.

1980: Montrouge Salon.

Residences:

1999: Winner of the Wicar Foundation, 6-month stay in Rome.