CONTACT

iannis.pledel@gmail.com

Iannis Pledel is a French painter whose work explores the moment when reality wavers, where shadows and light reveal the fragility of appearances and the tensions of intimacy. He is drawn to what surfaces before disappearing: a reflection, a glimmer, an ambiguous expression, a gesture, or conflicting emotions. This area of subtle nuances, so delicate to grasp, lies at the demanding and singular heart of his practice.

His paintings unfold in two main fields: the « Night Paintings » explore the flesh, capturing human figures at tipping points. Vulnerability and contained violence subtly emerge in expressions and postures, embodying the intensity and ambivalence of inner forces ; and the « Day Paintings », interior–exterior scenes exploring daily life, reflections, and the circulation of the gaze.

Through a fluid and structured pictorial approach, Pledel creates images suspended between familiarity and strangeness, spaces where the visible and invisible meet, probing the sensitive layers of reality and the emotional forces that inhabit them.

Trained at Gobelins School of Visual Arts and Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, with a PhD in Political Science, he has exhibited in France and internationally, notably at Lumas Galleries and the Xi’an Museum in China. He also collaborates with artists and brands on visual and artistic projects with Colette Paris, Estée Lauder, for album covers with Génération Goldman, Electro Deluxe, Quintet Syntonia and Acquin.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Selected)

• 2023 – Inside Out, Art Center Cresco, Saint-Mandé
• 2022 – Floating Souls, Art Center Cresco, Saint-Mandé
• 2022 – Dédales, Town Hall Cultural Center, Paris
• 2019 – Fragments of Desires & Odyssey, La Cale 2 Créateurs Gallery, Nantes
• 2019 – Fragments of Desires, Cité des Arts, Chambéry
• 2014 – The Parisian Girls (duo with Stéphane Manel), Colette, Paris
• Selection 2012–2014 – Galerie B, Pont-Aven ; Chapelle Saint-Roch, Argentan ; La Galerie des 13 Regards, Paris ; Le Saturne, Paris

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2020 – Antoine de Galbert Foundation Grant
• 2018, 2022 & 2023  – Certificate of artistic merit, Luxembourg Art Prize, Pinacothèque Museum

PUBLICATIONS, CATALOGS, PRESS (Selected)

• Liberation of Arts: 20 Years of Lumas, teNeues, 2024
• Lumas Art Magazine, vol. I & II, 2020–2023
• Estée Lauder Pink Ribbon Photo Award, Éditions Xavier Barral, 2017
• Normal, Art Photography, n°5 & n°6, 2015
• Catalogs : Centre d’Art le Cresco, Cité des Arts Xi’an, Salon d’Automne, Le Colette, Cité des Arts de Chambéry
• Press : Magazine of Saint-Mandé, Le Parisien, Ouest-France, Paris dis-sept, Le 13 du mois, Journal de l’Orne

BOOKS & ARTISTIC PROJECTS

• Château Shadow (90 p., 50 photographs), 2016
• The Escape from Venice (170 p., 75 photographs), 2013

ARTISTIC COLLABORATION (Selected)

• Photographs and exhibitions: Colette, Paris (Les Parisiennes with Stéphane Manel)
• Album covers and artist portraits: Génération Goldman, Electro Deluxe, Acquin, Le Quintet Syntonia
• Visual projects and campaigns: Estée Lauder, Les Théâtres Parisiens Associés, Nokia, Withings, Le Design Français, Eduniversal

EDUCATION & TRAINING

• 2017 – Gobelins, School of Visual Arts, Paris
• PhD, Sciences-Po Aix (2009, Very Honorable)
• Master’s in Epistemology, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne / ENS Ulm / EHESS (2004)
• Specialized workshops: platinum-palladium printing (studio of Laurent Lafolie & Carlos Barrantes, Paris); screen printing with Daido Moriyama, Paris; intaglio printing, Venice

TEACHING & RESIDENCIES (Selected)

• 2022 – Lecture, Art Center Cresco, Saint-Mandé
• 2020 – Painting and drawing, Maison Marceau Residency, Paris
• 2020 – Mural and fresco painting, Maison Marceau Residency with the Aurore Association, Paris
• 2019 – Residency and workshop, Cité des Arts de Chambéry / Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chambéry