Calicots et pigments rouges, 2022

René Galassi   Emerging artists

René Galassi's vocation was influenced by his parents: the artist comes from a family of cabinetmakers on his father's side, and musicians in his mother family. As a child he was inspired by this artistic energy, and used to draw imaginary worlds on paper or other media on which he could put his hands.

As an adult, he met the artist Henri Baviera who taught him printmaking techniques. His work was warmly received as he had his first shows. René Galassi's precision and patience with this rigorous engraving work lead to the exceptional quality of his prints. His work is characterized by the intensity and depth of his blacks, which contrast the luminosity of his compositions.

An artist of many great talents, he creates intriguing drawings, silhouettes and collages of great finesse in just a few traits of the pen. He continues to work with the same rigour, creating black and gold paintings, made with lively and mysterious materials.

Totems of all sizes come to life in a new painting work, bursting of colours, an ode to the Mediterranean sea. Recently, his artistic path took him to other shores where color is predominant and he can work with less conventional materials.

However, his favourite material is the paper of the engravings that opened to him the doors to the world of creation... Sensitive to this support, he gives life, on paper, to the meanders and contortions of the nature that he loves to contemplate, always surprising, unique, beautiful, on which humans left their marks, their traces.

He translates his feelings by translating in his works nature's twirls, as beautiful as the vines of fragrant wisteria... Admiring the curves of René Galassi's "Calicots", we can imagine being rocked by the Mediterranean as the Mistral starts to blow, or venturing onto the hiking trails that criss-cross the Alps rising above the sea. Or maybe flying over a field and following the furrows that farmers make as they work the land in spring...