Interview: François Noël
Luca Curci talks with François Noël during CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2021 – THE SECRET GARDEN, at Misericordia Archives.

François Noël is a French Artist born in the south of France in 1985. From that youth he painted with his grandmother who painted on silk. At the beginning of his adolescence he followed a painting education in a specialized school and made these first exhibitions. In 2018 after an experience in London he returned to settle in France in Aix-en-Provence. Want to create more and more he began to paint again but this time with a particular rather abstract style, most often using a palette knife. Since 2018, national and international exhibitions have followed one another in particular in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium.Through his vibrant and colorful works, recognizable by their significant geometric shapes, François Noël, Painter and Visual Artist offers us great perspectives to nourish our mind. Urban architecture with a building scale, glass facades, advertising lights are the main sources of inspiration for this multi-faceted Artist. On canvas or plexiglass, the Artist creates geometric and very colorful abstractions, applied using a palette knife. With an extraordinary mastery of a double perception of his paintings, François Noël makes them particularly singular works, which challenge our visual perception. Shadows, lights, colors and materials interact with each other. By playing with the mixture of these elements, the Artist creates visual illusions, in brilliant colors, which compete for the soul of his work. Despite a very present abstraction, his pictorial works are very much constructed in the manner of an Architect, offering a harmonization of light and color. In his paintings, the Artist offers the viewer a perspective of strong imagination. The process he uses is an open door to all emotions. They are an invitation to imaginary travel, to wander the mind, to curiosity. François Noël’s works are the subject of numerous exhibitions across France, and artistic events, notably Art Capital in Grand Palais in Paris and Vasarely Fondation in Aix en Provence.

Luca Curci – What are you currently working on?
François Noël – I work on a new synthetic support in aluminum and plastic which gives a new depth to my artistic work.

LC – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
FN – My origins come from the masters who inspired me, such as Vasarely or Mondrian. When I worked for an architect in London.

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
FN – Yes, I evolve on a daily basis thanks to new media and new materials that I am trying and which are changing the way I work. Already the tools to use, because a painting can be explained completely differently between a canvas and a sheet of plexyglas and also with the size of the works.

LC – What is your creative process like?
FN – Always innovate, look for new ways to create and above all have fun because the work suffers.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
FN – These are all the fixing systems that I create at the time to be able to realize my ideas.

LC – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the artwork presented been created for the festival or as a part of preexisting works?
FN – My work already existed before we met, but I found what could go well with this magnificent place in this magnificent city.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the festival’s theme?
FN – For me this work has all that room for your festival because of its nature, this palette of blue and gold.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID platform?
FN – Your platform is an institution, which represents artists around the world and I am happy to have been able to start our common adventure.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
FN – Totally, as I said in the previous question, you represent artists in the world, something that alone we artists have a hard time doing.