Franck Lebraly, solar artist

Favorite tracks by Franck Lebraly in creation:

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This southerner, born in Cannes of Sicilian origin, grew up in a family of artists: his father was a restorer of ancient objects and his grandfathers, a letter painter and cabinetmaker. ”As far as I can remember, someone always gave me a pencil, and I instantly loved these moments of escape. Get lost in the blank sheet, create from scratch, or interpret what is in front of you.” For studies, it will therefore be the history of art in Aix, graphic design in Nice, then applied arts in Toulon. After graduating, he went to the capital and became a graphic designer and artistic director, particularly at Publicis and Havas. He creates concepts for Renault, Slate, Greenpeace, Hermès...

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The trigger to start as an artist? The health crisis. At the time, advertising missions were dwindling, leaving him time to work with the mother of his child, Stéphanie Lizée, interior designer, who was working on a hotel decoration project in the south: the hotel “Le Sud”, precisely. In Juan-les-Pins. ”We thought it would be cool to do some wall paintings. While my original style is influenced by movie storyboards, sketches by Enki Bilal or Giacometti with multiple features, I went against the grain. I was going to tattoo the skin on the walls of the hotel with minimal and elegant sketches, paying tribute to the artistic legends who magnified the Côte d'Azur in the 1950s and 1960s, in its golden age: Picasso, Leger, Cocteau, Klein...” The result is sunny yellow, cheerful blue, soothing terracotta: it's la dolce vita. ”I was still in lockdown in Paris when I imagined the central figure, a trompe-l'oeil window that is a dream of freedom. It is the memory of an entrance to the arcade that is in my parents' house, in Le Cannet. You realize the treasure of having the chance to live in the south when you get away from it. This window and the totem objects in my frescoes are the south that I love. Where life is simpler, sweet. I only use one color, or even two or three, and I represent bodies suggested in landscapes, mostly maritime, dotted with horizon lines, waves. All around can appear palm trees, lemons, fish, or sea urchins. A woman is often there, like an illusion by Dora Maar, Picasso's muse, an inescapable myth. My drawings are the vision of waking up from a nap on the beach, when the mind is still dizzy with daydreams.” Since this project, everything has gone very quickly. Franck Lebraly is asked to tattoo the walls of dozens of places: the headquarters of the company L'Occitane in Paris, the Belle Vue hotels in Cavalaire and Bleu in Carry-le-Rouet, the restaurants Maison Fonfon in Monaco or La Bambola in Cannes, the Baba beaches in Cap d'Antibes, La Mandala in Cannes, Momo Bodrum in Turkey, or establishments in Megève.

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Among his latest frescoes, there is the Hotel des Académies et des Arts in Paris, a landmark for artists of the Belle Époque. Franck Lebraly used the ceilings of the rooms as a canvas, in a pictorial work in pastel in draft form, each paying tribute to the artists who passed by there: Gauguin, Foujita, Modigliani...

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The artist also designs bas reliefs, in the manner of Fernand Leger, and ceramics. For the Enamoura brand, he created a plate week, and he recently designed 400 plates by hand for the Cannes restaurant La Bambola! After several exhibitions of his work in Marseille and Paris, this summer he will paint the ceilings of a private individual in Ajaccio, and the walls of a vineyard transformed into a hotel in the Var region of France for the LVMH group. Today, the artist lives between Paris, where his son lives, and Le Cannet. ”In Paris, I am in the flow of news, inspiring trends, and I can create. I have to miss the South for that. Then I go down to drink for a few days in the unique light of the Riviera, its blue, its simplicity. Then I leave, in the fog of Paris, a necessary step in my creative process.”

Franck Lebraly exhibits his canvases and ceramics at Cobalt, in Nice, and at the Gabel Gallery in Biot. He displays glasses and jugs in collaboration with Sophie Ferjani, in Marseille.

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