City of Lightning, 2024

Danielle Maillet-Vila  

Danielle Maillet-Vila is a French artist born in 1945 who lives and works in Barbizon, France. She first moved into fashion industry and started her own business at just 22 years old while continuing to paint. In 1979, the artist's creative flame was rekindled. Danielle settled in Cavaillon and was inspired by old Provençal villages in her first paintings. She became a member of Quat'Z'Arts et Métiers in 1988 and Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1992. A long period of personal research will advance his figurative expression towards the imagination. In 2003, the meeting with the artist Zao Wou Ki was decisive and would influence her painting. During a stay in Barcelona in 2009, Gaudi's modernism inspired her, to the point of paying homage to him in one of her recent paintings. After her stay in South America in 2011, the colors became more violent. The same year, she obtained a quote from Christian Sorriano, expert in contemporary art. The meeting with Wang Yan Cheng during an exhibition in Lyon in 2012 will also be decisive: the artist's pictorial sensitivity particularly fascinates and inspires her. In 2018, she set up her easels in a Barbizon workshop where she continued her colorful path, inspired by this authentic place imbued with the spirit of her illustrious predecessors.