” Pierre Fourmeau’s painting unfolds within a paradoxical tension: appearing by disappearing. Painting often begins by un-painting: layers are laid down only to be washed, sanded, erased, leaving edges, halos, ghosts of pigment that become structure.
This regime of appearance/disappearance stages a material dramaturgy. Water acts not as a destructive solvent but as an agent of revelation; washed areas read like scores of events, turbulences, erosions, shifts of light.
Unlike the heroic legacy of Abstract Expressionism, Fourmeau does not sacralize his gesture. The hand erases as much as it asserts. Fragility here is not weakness but method: the works remain open, wavering, where incompletion becomes an ethic — to endure doubt, to turn instability into a form of truth.
Each surface is haunted by survivals — erased traces persisting like ghosts, memories stubbornly returning. These paintings are not only to be contemplated; they are to be traversed, as sites of survival where time ceaselessly begins again. “
Etienne Morel, Art historian and critic
Pierre Fourmeau (b. 1990) lives and works in Normandy. Trained at the École du Louvre and EHESS in Paris, he has presented his pictorial work in numerous residencies (Abbaye de la Prée, Culterim Berlin, ŠUM Slovakia, Centrale 7, …) and exhibitions across France and Europe.
Alongside his painting practice, he has pursued music for over a decade through the groups Avec des Gens Armés and On lâche les chiens, as well as in the performing arts (theatre, dance), composing music and sound environments at the crossroads of pop, experimental, and post-punk.
He is also the co-founder of the cultural third place Les Petits Châtelets in Alençon, which he has co-directed since 2019. This residency and creation space sustains his commitment to collective projects and affirms a practice that is at once visual, musical, and community-based, always open to encounter and exchange.
Pierre Fourmeau
Born in 1990, France
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Portfolio – Pierre Fourmeau ENGLISH
Formation ZZZZZZZZZ
2014 – 2016 · EHESS (Paris) – Master degree in Arts & Language
2009 – 2014 · École du Louvre (Paris) – Art history and museology
2007 – 2009 · Literary preparatory class (Lille)
2001 – 2009 · Music Conservatory of Lille – piano & music theory
Professional experiences
Artistic Director & Curator – Chapêlmêle – cultural venue and residency space (since 2020)
Programming and coordination of exhibitions, concerts and artistic residencies.
Workshop Leader (2012 – present)
Artistic and educational projects with children and adults: building musical instruments, artistic awakening, introduction to art history, participatory parades and stage workshops, …
Composer & Performer (since 2008)
Musician in several bands and solo projects (Avec des Gens Armés, On lâche les chiens, Tomi Marx, …), collaborations for theater and dance performances.
Residencies (selection, Visual arts)
2025 · Culterim (Berlin, DE)
2025 · Abbaye de la Prée (Issoudun, FR)
2024 · Maison La Famille (Meaux, FR)
2024 · Les Oiseaux de la Tempête (Fougères, FR)
2023 · Espace en Cours (Douarnenez, FR)
2023 · ŠUM kultúrno-komunitné centrum (Trebišov, SK)
2022 · Centrale 7 (Segré-en-Anjou Bleu, FR)
2021 · Galerie Prisma (Cherbourg, FR)
Solo exhibitions
2023 · ŠUM, kultúrno-komunitné centrum (Trebišov, SK) – curated by Katarína Gubková
2021 · Halle aux Blés (Alençon, FR) – Demain est trop court
2018 · La Trockette (Paris, FR)
2011 · Espace culturel La Faille (Paris, FR)
2009 · Médiathèque (Lille, FR)
Group exhibitions
2025 · Cank Galerie (Berlin, DE) – Curated by Marthe Howitz
2023 · Estiv’art (Alençon, FR) – Whispers of Territory (city-wide summer exhibition)
2022 · Centrale 7 (Segré-en-Anjou Bleu, FR) – Traces Left Behind
2021 · Galerie Prisma (Cherbourg, FR) –When Painting Dreams of Itself (part of the “Mois de la Peinture”)
2019 · Le Confort Moderne (Poitiers, FR) – Residual Figures (group show on abstraction and gesture, linked to the festival Traverses)
2014 · La Linerie (Longueville-sur-Scie, FR) – Bodies Becoming Light
2013 · Maison des Arts (Paris, FR) – Jeunes Créateurs en Mouvement (as part of Nuit Blanche Off)
2012 · Trophée Alain Godon (Le Touquet, FR) – Prize finalist exhibition
Music – Concerts
Avec des gens armés (since 2023)
Experimental pop duo. Concerts in France, Belgium and Switzerland, including: La Luciole (SMAC, Alençon) · Brasserie ILLegaaL (Brussels) · Zéro Degré Est (Tours) · Festival Talbot Machine (Orne).
On lâche les chiens (2011–2021)
Solo project. Over 400 concerts across Europe, including: Festival La Plage des 6 Pompes (CH) · La Mécanique Ondulatoire (Paris) · Werkhof 102 (Bern) · Espace B (Paris) · Instants Chavirés (Montreuil).
Music – Compositions for performing arts (selection)
Compagnie Shift Shape (USA) – Metronians (2022)
Collectif Toujours – 200 % d’hommes d’action (2020)
Ensemble Éphémère – Résonances (2019)
Compagnie Quo Vadis (Finland) – Feeri (2018–2019)
Collectif Jokle – L’empreinte (2018–2019), Au revoir mon Amour (2017–2018)
Boxon Sentimental – Les Enfants d’Octobre (2017), Quand je parle de sexe et de Christ (2018)
Compagnie Hieronymus – Catwalk (2016)