Manolo CHRETIEN - Biographies | Gallery GADCOLLECTION, Paris

Biographies

Manolo CHRETIEN was born in 1966 on the Orange airbase (France). His father was a French pilot and international astronaut (first European to go into space), he spent his young years between sheds and airplanes. Manolo CHRETIEN developed quickly a high interest about this metallic world, which combines technology, speed and power. It explains his fascination for movement and material.

He entered in the École Nationale des Arts Appliqués et des métiers d’art in 1987. It allowed him to have a thorough knowledge of the mechanics of materials. Wind, speed and the inevitably curved shapes of devices and waves, give undulating structures. Manolo CHRETIEN calls Solid Anemomorphoses the apparatus whereas waves are called Liquid Anemomorphoses. Manolo CHRETIEN scatters his photos with distortions and fluidity of lines. The strength of elements fascinates him, just as the term Anemomorphose underlines it, made by combining anemos (“wind” in ancient Greek) and morphos (“shape”). The wind shapes the material by its imprint.

The materiality of Manolo CHRETIEN's photos is fully at the service of its subjects.

Manolo CHRETIEN takes care to mesmerize us with the slightest details. Games of reflections and textures magnify his subjects. They work together to create a whole: the artwork. Its materiality is crucial when we look at Manolo CHRETIEN’s work. He prints his series Nose (2008-2012), about airplane noses, or the series Wave (2012-2014), on brushed and anodized aluminum. As a result, the most beautiful waves he photographed become iridescent, interacting with the outside light.

It can be sky or sea, all Manolo CHRETIEN’s photographs deal with a journey inside endless expanse of blue. He re-examine by his choice, the question about light reflection and light scattering, together causing the blue of Sky and Sea. To define his multi-reflecting photos, Manolo CHRETIEN use the word AluminAtions, a portmanteau of aluminum and illuminations, or even hallucination. These mirror surfaces animate the anemomorphoses.