Penninghen graduate The concept of epicenter is a focal point in the work of Nicolas d’Olce. The epicenter is a generator of projectiles whose forms become imaginary vestiges, the memory of an explosion created from scratch, an artistic paradox between the fear of destruction and the excitement of a construction. In the center of his studio, debris are dispersed like the only remaining objects of an explosion.They are the vectors of a constant tension, and can be viewed as consequences of an accident. Plaster, wood, charcoal, plexiglass and gum, Nicolas d´Olce makes use of different materials in a vast project where time marks the existence of the material. Everything seems eroded and degraded in a graphic sublimation where each line, each point, each sparkle accumulated on the forms creates an abstract typography engraved in the mass. Blackness absorbs, it captures us in many ways. On the plexiglass "La trame du monde", it is spatial and icy. In its petroleum thickness, its circularity and the traces of the electric machines have drawn the gigantic plan of an infinitely small network: a succession of brutal and surgical incisions in a digital blue. Nicolas D’Olce produced this mapping like an oversized, almost digital screen. We feel a saturation, even a rupture; the obvious mark of his collaboration with scientists from INSERM, the same institution for which he worked on a triptych with the fantastic journey of a nano-metric particle in the immensity of a brain in chaos. Nicolas’s work is not about painting anymore, which would explain why his practice developed into crafting, thus giving himself the opportunity to open up new fields of experimentation. On the occasion of a monumental piece in etched glass for the Guerlain house, Nicolas worked in the workshops of master glassmaker Bernard Pictet and more recently with the ceramicist Jean-Marie Foubert at the Tuilerie de Treigny to create a sculpture for the exterior, at the request of a collector. In the continuity of his investigations and its incessant transformations, Nicolas d´Olce deploys his work in the double field of abstraction and formalism. Thus, in the series of tables entitled "Leak" and "Zone", it is the color that becomes the center of an event. It spreads out in immense floating and monochrome sails in printing then transferring techniques developed by the artist. Moreover, he confesses his admiration for Color field painting and a certain attraction for minimalism. But there, in front of these plasticised works, made of glass microfibres and acrylic resin, inks and pigments projected in plaster, we are far from appeasement. For some, their texture is slippery and translucent; we come across fibre siphons through which the gaze finds an escape. On other pieces, conceived as burnt territories, we breathe, beyond their borders, the smell of carbon, acids and sulfur. These blocks of matter are suspended; frozen dermis or chemical armor, they lead back to the excesses of our world ... Jimi Hendrix
Elisabeth Mironenko-Blankoff, born in Paris in 1992, is a French artist of Russian-Ukrainian descent. Her work explores the intersections between the real, the imaginary, and the sacred, questioning perceptions of time and space. She ventures into hidden and intertwined constructions, weaving connections between personal identity and cultural influences. Her reflection is framed within the issue of confusion between belief and reality, that is to say, on the unavoidable mythologies we fabricate about ourselves and others. History and Memory, inseparable from their narratives and personal stories, are both the starting point and the endpoint of her work. She seeks to restore to the real its fictional dimension, and to fictions their real dimension. It is about returning to a point of questioning where another reading of signs is possible and where space-time is manipulated freely. These images brought to life refer to memories, lived or imagined experiences, like an inner exodus. She attempts a reconstruction of the multicultural diversity from which she originates, while making distinctions even as she cannot limit her identity to strict borders. The permeability of worlds then reveals itself, even where there seems to be only otherness. Thus, the question of travel, in the sense of confronting civilizations, textual and visual documentation, and human encounter, is paramount in her work. Her memory is inhabited: frescoes, ruins, icons, illuminations, textiles, objects, patterns, music, textures, colors, vibrations, calligraphy, signs, symbols, and languages, architecture and ancient and medieval imagery. PLASTIC APPROACH She manipulates materials through evolving experiments that imitate the passage of time; her creative process allows for spontaneity, letting go, chance, restarting, emergence, repentance, total or partial erasure, palimpsest, chemical reaction, even destruction. But this freedom is articulated with controlled technical mastery, precisely seeking that balance where form and content are inseparable. Among the many mediums practiced throughout her life, Elisabeth has chosen in recent years to delve deeper into oil painting, natural pigments, and lime stucco. The question of the support has taken on a predominant role to play with the material – plexiglass, coated wood, coated canvas, plasterboard – and it is often custom-made or cast, like molding plaster. In her paintings, the viewer witnesses the passage of time, the layers of the past, as well as the transmission of her beliefs and family origins. These roots are varied, unstable, eclectic, even paradoxical, and it is this syncretism that gives Elisabeth the need to reconcile them. BACKGROUND AND INFLUENCES Elisabeth is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et Métiers d’Arts (ENSAAMA Olivier-de-Serres) in Paris. After following a curriculum in Graphic Design in print media and advertising, she oriented herself towards a Master's in Art Direction specialized in digital media. She has lived and worked in Paris, Peru, Israel, and Occitanie. She received her latest diploma in 2022 from the École Européenne de l’Art et des Matières in Albi, specializing in Wall Decoration (natural coatings: clay, lime, plaster). Daughter of the Russian conceptual artist Vladimir Mironenko, of Russian and Cossack descent, and Raïssa Blankoff, a journalist and production manager at Radio France, granddaughter of Belgian professor Jean Blankoff, Doctor in Philology and Slavic History, and American professor Goldie Scarr, of Ukrainian origin; Elisabeth speaks five languages and writes in three alphabets. Immersed in the universe of her grandparents whose home in Brussels is dotted with works and ancient objects from Central, Western, and Russian Asia, but also influenced from childhood by the avant-gardes of conceptual art from the former USSR of which her father is a part, she adds a personal interest in so-called naive, singular, or modest art. Her work is tirelessly accompanied by various technical experiments, with the aim of liberating the line and even losing control over acquired skills. This philosophy aligns with her desire to transmit and teach, particularly to children. Elisabeth founded the Atelier Matis in September 2017 in Occitanie, a space dedicated to teaching visual arts to children, adolescents, and adults through regular classes and workshops. This workshop allows for a playful and contemporary introduction to a variety of techniques related to visual arts and crafts. Creativity and experimentation are encouraged through workshops in painting, drawing, photography, mosaic, printmaking, bookbinding-publishing, framing, typography, collage, graphic design, etc. "I enjoy playing with ambiguity in my work, sometimes addressing serious subjects in unexpected, childlike, naive, dreamlike, relaxed, decadent, or even provocative ways."
Valentine Reinhardt is a multidisciplinary artist. After studying at the Penninghen School of Graphic Arts in Paris, she was awarded by the Club des Directeurs Artistiques and shortlisted for the D&AD Awards for her videos created for the artist Sébastien Tellier. Valentine’s universe stands out for its graphic style, intense colors, and dreamlike quality. She enjoys transforming, subverting, and playfully engaging with codes through humor and poetry to give birth to singular images. Her quest for beauty drives her to reinvent the world around her by elevating reality. Through their compositions and colors, her images often evoke the realm of surrealist painting. Her work revolves around painting, photography, and video. Valentine has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Sfr, Apple, Instagram, and artists like Youngr, Gesaffelstein, and The Weeknd. She presents her first solo exhibition titled "Vanités" in Paris in 2023, and in Geneva in 2024. "Arcane" marks her second solo exhibition, presented in London in 2025.
Pablo Gosselin (Rouen, 1986) is interested in the fluctuations of matter, its eruptions, its losses, its unknown transformations. He observes the abstract traces left in his environment, then extracts and materializes certain elements through framing and casting. His sculptures seek a poetic quality of matter: sometimes geometric, sometimes atmospheric, he attempts to materialize the flows of the living (the passage of water, the passage of fire, the passages of animals, the passages of humans) before they fade away to gradually change form. He is also intrigued by what is generally said about failures, scraps, and waste: an oil stain that is covered with sawdust (T de Silo), an overcooked pot of rice that seals itself (Tas de riz), a failed shot that crashes violently to the ground, leaving poetic impacts (82PB). From these scraps, he brings forth new forms, seeking to reveal their potential. His objects oscillate between the loss of a material state and the birth of a new form, the melancholy of ruins and the exhilaration of what is to come.
Born in Lyon in 1995, Audrey Bertoia studied graphic design at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes. She now lives in Biarritz, where she has set up her studio. Since graduating (DNSEP) in 2020, she has anchored her practice in oil painting, while navigating between art and design, constantly exploring other mediums such as textiles, ceramics, illustration, and fresco. Her pictorial exploration has led her to develop a painting that blends reality and fiction, bringing to life vibrant and enigmatic scenes. Skirting the surreal, her figurative compositions, imbued with intense colors, question the human experience and its relationship to nature, music, and poetry. Through light and color, she shapes sensitive images where the real is tinged with strangeness, opening a space for contemplation and escape.