Julien Des Monstiers French, b. 1983

Born in 1983 in France, Julien Des Monstiers studied at the renowned Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he trained under Jean-Michel Alberola. Julien is a young artist who, despite his age, is widely acknowledged among the Parisian artistic scene. He is also the winner of the Antoine Marin Painting Prize in 2015.

 

Julien plays around with colour, texture, concepts, and a forgotten artistic savoir faire, in the hopes of placing art in a place where it had once been. He pushes the boundaries between fine and applied art, and has radicalised his approach in recent years, focusing on the concept of tautology in painting. His paintings are, by nature, two-dimensional, but the artist nonetheless seeks to illustrate depth, layers, textures, and folds.

 

Since 2016, his work has been represented by Galerie Christophe Gaillard (Paris, Brussels, Le Tremblay), which has presented six solo exhibitions of his work. He has exhibited widely in both institutional and private contexts, including MO.CO (2023), the Yvon Lambert Collection (2019), the Fondation Ricard (2015), and the Palais de Tokyo (2014), alongside residencies abroad. His accolades include the Marin Prize (2015), the Yishu 8 Prize (2017), the Pierre Cardin Prize (2019), and the Simone and Cino Del Duca Painting Prize (2022).

 

In 2024, his work was the subject of major monographic exhibitions at the Château de Chambord and Le Suquet des Artistes, accompanied by a new publication by Martin de Halleux.

 

Working with a virtuosic and experimental approach to oil painting, Julien des Monstiers pushes the medium to its limits. From hunting scenes and animal imagery to patterns, landscapes, and tapestry-like compositions, his subjects serve as entry points into a deeper investigation of painting itself. His works demand close looking, where surface, gesture, and material take precedence, and painting in its purest form becomes the central obsession.