Christopher Lavenair, born in 1971, grew up between Paris and London— a dual culture that would influence his work. After studying art at Chelsea College of Art and Wimbledon School of Art, where he studied with Georges Blacklock, he attracted the attention of the renowned Bettie Morton Gallery, which offered him his first exhibition in London in 2002. During his Mediterranean stays, Christopher Lavenair expanded his palette with luminous tones bursting onto the canvas and taking shape in bold overlays.
An exuberant painting that devours space, letting its gestural exuberance permeate a variety of surfaces: papers, photographs, fabrics, canvases, cardboard, advertising media, sketchbooks… Lavenair redraws everyday life, releasing his colours in broad strokes—unceasing colouring—to make his desire to illuminate life burst forth.
Readily describing himself as influenced by Pop Art, Lavenair is part of this movement, an intellectual, expressionist approach that brings abstraction, figuration, and the dynamism of words into play. In his paintings and collages, Lavenair combines popular realities with fashion magazine covers and humour, giving glossy-paper images a psychological embodiment and a musicality. Here one senses; there one elevates.
In photography, the artist seeks a support for imagination and for reconstructing a universe between the advertising world and iconic figures. Books, too, are unique pieces—works on full pages, in gouache, acrylic, waxed; here again, a revered feminine grace.