Matisse Mesnil (1989) is a French-Italian artist based in Paris.

Positioned between craftsmanship and industry, Matisse Mesnil has developed a body of technical and methodological experimentation centred on his material of choice: metal. This material requires a reconsideration of gesture and tools: working rhythms become subordinate to its physical processes, and the technical apparatus is fully integrated into the work’s formal construction.

Through practices such as welding and grinding, the artist reworks the means of figuration within its most traditional genres, including landscape and still life, while his research is accompanied by an increasingly abstract vocabulary that approaches the language of minimalism. More recently, Mesnil has expanded his research toward a larger scale, developing site-specific land art interventions, where the work engages directly with the environment and the material conditions of a given place.

Alongside the noise of the industrial world emerges the ethics and aesthetics of quiet contemplation, and a subtle tension runs through the artist’s most recent works, which nonetheless evoke an almost sacred dimension. This is also evident in the scenographic and architectural attention that structures his practice: from their format to their modes of display, the works are conceived to be experienced spatially and in direct relation to the viewer’s body.

Represented by Romero Paprocki Gallery, his work has been featured in several solo and group exhibitions at galleries and institutions including Centre Pompidou-Metz, Collection Lambert (Avignone), Zhi Art Museum (Chengdu, Cina), Mucem (Marsiglia) and Museo Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse).