Abbaye de l'Epau - Voyage dans Les Cités Obscures, 2016

François Schuiten   Best sellers Emerging artists

A major author of comic books, illustrator, and storyboard artist, François Schuiten was born in Brussels on April 26, 1956, in a family where architecture holds a predominant place. This influence deeply marks his path and his work, nourished by a fascination for architecture, cities, and urban imaginaries, which he explores through visions alternately utopian and dystopian.

After studies in comic books at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels, he publishes his first story at the age of 16, before collaborating with the famous magazines Métal Hurlant and (À suivre). In 1983, Les Cités obscures are born, a founding work created with his childhood friend, the screenwriter Benoît Peeters.

Counting more than twenty albums today, translated into about ten languages and distributed in several hundred thousand copies, Les Cités obscures has established itself as one of the major works of contemporary comic books. The series receives numerous awards, including the Best Album Prize at the Angoulême Festival for La Fièvre d'Urbicande in 1985. In 2002, François Schuiten received the Grand Prix of the city of Angoulême for his entire body of work.

Beyond comic books, he develops a deeply multidisciplinary work, at the crossroads of illustration, poster art, theater, cinema, and set design. He creates many posters and illustrations for events, festivals, and exhibitions, while collaborating on various theatrical and cinematic projects.

The conception of spaces and universes constitutes another essential aspect of his work. In 1990, he imagined the Musée des Ombres in Angoulême, and then designed the 2015 exhibition Revoir Paris at the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, at the Trocadéro. He is also responsible for the sets of the Arts et Métiers metro stations in Paris and Porte de Hal in Brussels, as well as several World's Fair pavilions. More recently, he was chosen to design the artistic identity of the future Pont de Sèvres station, as part of the Grand Paris Express.

In Brussels, he plays a decisive role in the preservation and rehabilitation of the Maison Autrique, the first Brussels house designed by Victor Horta, which he contributes to transforming into a cultural venue. He is also the designer of the Train World, the SNCB train museum in Brussels.

His long-standing passion for Jules Verne and his universe also leads him to design the set design for the Maison Jules Verne in Amiens. He notably imagines the Nauti-poulpe, a monumental bronze sculpture installed in 2025.

His work also invests public space, with the creation of many painted walls in several cities, including Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve, Lyon, Angoulême, and Warsaw.

His interest in science, exploration, and major contemporary issues also leads him to participate in several scientific and prospective projects. He is part of the ScanPyramids scientific consortium, which conducts research aimed at revealing structures and cavities still unknown within the Great Pyramid of Giza. He participates in the Red Team, an initiative of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces dedicated to anticipating threats and societal issues likely to emerge in the coming decades. He is also the originator, with his co-star Laurent Durieux, of the visual identity for the first five editions of Sur les épaules des géants, a scientific event organized in Le Havre. The two artists have collaborated for many years on numerous illustration projects.

François Schuiten is also a member of the Poelaert Foundation, which works for the preservation and restoration of the Palace of Justice in Brussels, an emblematic building of the capital to which he holds a deep admiration.

Through the diversity of his creations, François Schuiten pursues a constantly renewed exploration of architecture, cities, and imaginary worlds, at the crossroads of art, science, and foresight.

François Schuiten is distinguished by a drawing of great precision, particularly meticulous and detailed. A true goldsmith at his drawing table, he dedicates many hours each day to it. Starting from pencil sketches, he builds his images in India ink, which he applies with a pen, then resorts to pencils and brushes for coloring. Each drawing is the result of meticulous and demanding work, where the precision of the line and the richness of the details occupy an essential place.