Alexandra Roussopoulos

website

Born 1969 with French, Swiss and Greek nationalities.

Studied at Heatherley’s school of Art et Camberwell School of Art in London, then at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

1996-1999

Three main series of paintings (red, green, blue), each of them creating a different universe for each colour. Research on colour and texture, with paint applied to paper laid out on canvas. Experiments around sketchbooks. First presentation of the work on the invitation of Jan Voss at the Julio Gonzalez gallery (Arcueil, France), as part of the event « Rencontres 96 ».
A decisive encounter with gallery owners Marie Cornette and Aldo Pajarin, leading to a first solo exhibition at the Cornette-Pajarin gallery (rue du Roi de Sicile, Paris) in 1998. Group exhibition at the Studio de l’Image in Paris.
First exhibition abroad in 1999 at the Planque Gallery in Lausanne, Switzerland.

2000-2003

The work becomes more radical, with almost monochrome paintings and square formats. Use of fluorescent colours transforming the light that hits them.
Several collaborative projects with other artists: Joan Ayrton, Eric Bauer, Jean-Baptiste Farkas, Lou Inglebert, Catherine Jacquet, Aurélia Jaubert, Martin Mc Nulty, Jean-André Orlandi, Julie Safirstein, Jean de Seynes and Romain Taieb.
Teaches Visual Arts for five years at primary school “L’École Aujourd’hui” in Paris.
In 2002, receives the International Painting Prize of the city of Vitry-sur-Seine.
Another key encounter: Marie-Victoire Poliakoff, leading in 2003 to a first exhibition at the Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery (rue de Seine, Paris).

2000:
Correspondances, Carzou Foundation, Manosque, France
Galerie 29, Evian, France
Novembre à Vitry, art gallery of the city of Vitry-sur-Seine, France
2001:
Swiss Embassy, Paris, France
Domaine du Tremblay, Le Tremblay-sur-Mauldre, France
2002:
Correspondances, Musée Colette, Saint Sauveur en Puisaye, France
École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France
Galerie municipale, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
Galerie Grande Fontaine, Sion, Switzerland
Collection of contemporary art of the city of Vitry-sur-Seine, France
2003:
Museo Amadeo De Souza, Amarante, Portugal
Monasterio de San Cugat del Valles, Catalunya, Spain
Contemporary Art Fair of Montrouge, France

2004-2007

Work focusses on the temperature of colour (atmospheric colours evoking the sky and the colours of time). Gradual departure from the traditional canvas, first by rounding up the edges of the frames, then by creating her own shapes-frames: geometric forms first, then organic ones. Colour is pushed out to the edge of the painting. Plays with space, borders and changes of scale. The paintings are verging towards sculpture. Several collaboration with the journal Architecture à Vivre (Eric and Dominique Justmann). In 2004, exhibitions at the Parc de la Villette (Paris) during the event Vivre, c’est habiter. Painting and drawing workshops with socially excluded and elderly people for the charity “Les Petits Frères des Pauvres”. In 2007, curates her first exhibition L’Eau et les rêves featuring 65 artists at the Kamchatka gallery in Le Marais (Paris). The show runs for two months, with different guest curators and invited artists every week.

2004:
Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery, Paris, France
Galerie de l’Aiguillage, Paris, France
Récidives,  École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, France
2005:
Contemporary art centre of Mourenx, France
Légèreté, Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery, Paris, France
2006:
Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery, Paris, France
Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Galerie Grande Fontaine, Sion, Suisse
Paris-Spetses, Fondation Hellénique, Paris, France
Paris-Spetses, Galerie Victor Sfez, Paris, France
Format Peinture, Maison des Arts et de la culture André Malraux, Créteil, France
À la Trace, Galerie Kamchatka, Paris, France
2007:
Galerie du Montparnasse with Benjamin Swaim, Paris, France
Art protects, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, France
Fiac 2007, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Galerie Astrolavos, Athens, Greece
Merci, Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery, Paris, France
Unfair exhibition, Athens, Greece

2008-2013

The shapes-paintings take over imaginary spaces, slip into images of the real world (historical archives, works of art, maps…), are hung from the walls in minimalist or baroque architectures, and interfere with existing displays in museums or in other artists’ exhibitions. They are projected in impossible projects – ones that haven’t been completed or are just too big to be built.
In 2008, creation of murals in the Aftam shelter for immigrants, working with the residents and the association Unicités.
Invited by Marie-Fabienne Aymon to show with Martin Mc Nulty at the Louis Moret Foundation in Martigny (Switzerland).
In 2008, publication of the monograph Alexandra Roussopoulos by the Louis Moret Foundation, co-published with the Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery and with financial support by the State of Valais’ council for culture. The book was designed and produced by Maxime Tétard (les Graphiquants) with texts by Elisabeth Lebovici and Brooks Adams.
In 2010, receives the René Liechti Foundation’s Visual Arts prize (Switzerland).
Exhibition in Le Corbusier’s “Cité Radieuse” and at the festival “L’Art dans les Chapelles”.
The shapes are turning into architectures and exploring tri-dimensional space.
In 2011, collaboration with landscape architects Bernard Chapuis and Georges Vafias at the Parc Mosaïc in Lille (France).
From 2010, teaches painting at Prép’art, a school preparing students to art school entry examinations.
Encounter with Yvon Nouzille, the founder of the APDV arts centre, who places art at the heart of the community, in the public spaces of council estates. In 2011, takes part in the exhibition Bonjour organised by APDV.
Artist residencies: invited by Brane Kovic to Slovenia, by Isabel Duperray to Chamalot in the region of Corrèze (France), and by John Mc Hugh to the Achill Heinrich Böll Cottage in Ireland. Each of these trips left a strong mark on the evolution of the work.
Encounter with Julien Bézille, leading to participating in one of the Scrawitch gallery’s first solo exhibitions, with independent curator Catherine Ferbos-Nakov as the exhibition’s guest curator: the first in a series of future collaborations.
Residency in Zhang Jiajie, China, with thirty international artists. First experiements with rice paper that shrouds and filters the colours to the point of making them disappear. Return to the traditional frame and canvas, with a recent series of paintings interrogating pictorial balance through the notions of composition, surface, depth and texture.
The work increasingly reflects the importance of the link to others.
The paintings are reproduced in several catalogues of solo and group exhibitions, and appear in the contemporary section of Le Livre libre (Les cahiers dessinés, 2010). A monograph, Forma fabulis, is edited by Frédéric Pajak in 2011 and published by Éditions Noir sur Blanc, in the collection “Les cahiers dessinés” (production: Lea Lund/ texts: Brooks Adams, Elisabeth Lebovici, Natacha Nataf, Emmanuelle Lequeux / interview with Marie-Fabienne Aymon).

2008 :
Louis Moret Foundation, Martigny, Switzerland
Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff Gallery, Paris, France
Villa Bernasconi, Grand-Lancy, Suisse
Do I know you? Urban Gallery, Marseille, France
Galerija Artes, Medana, Slovenia
LREI Art Auction, New-York, USA
Charity auction for Aides, Drouot Montaigne, under the patronage of Sophie Calle, Paris, France
L’étrange beauté du monde, invited by Frédéric Pajak and Lea Lund, Villa Bernasconi, Grand-Lancy, Switzerland
Purchase by the State of Valais, Switzerland
2009:
Galerie davel 14, Cully, Switzerland
Rencontres n°33, La Vigie, Nîmes, France
Papier Machine, Galerie Kamchatka, Paris, France
Shortlisted for the Mourlot prize, gallery of the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Marseille (ESBAM), Marseille, France
Vendanges de Printemps, Chamalot, France
Mauvais Genre, co-curated with Isabel Duperray, Galerie Petit Maroc, St-Nazaire, France
2010:
Avenir incertain, utopies multiples, Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery, Paris, France
Là-haut, invited by par Benjamin Swaim, le Sphinx, Paris, France
Espace Inventé, Espace Rachel Debreuve, Auxerre, France
Transfrontaliers, curated by Philippe Cyroulnik, Hôtel de Ville, Sochaux, France
Dialogue d’Artistes Blanc sur Fond Blanc, Pixi-Marie-Victoire Poliakoff gallery, Paris, France
Pas du jeu, curated by Véronique Ribordy, le Manoir, Martigny, Suisse
Le loft Sévigné, curated by Camille Lambert, Paris, France
2011:
Supercalifragilistic, Louis Moret Foundation, Martigny, Switzerland
Dépeindre, 6b, Saint-Denis, France
La nuit remue, Episodique gallery, Paris, France
2012:
Les châteaux ambulants, Scrawitch gallery, Paris, France
Pullman hotel, Zhang Jiaje, China
Cent papiers et autres formes migrantes, LAC, curated by Véronique Ribordy, Vevey, Switzerland
2013:
Gallery Moos, curated by Gordon Novak, Toronto, Canada
Art Gallery of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada
Home sweet home, curated by Anne Destival et Callisto Mc Nulty, London, England
Galerie Episodique, Conversation avec Serge Poliakoff, Paris
Yard Gallery à Shanghai et Hangzhou Tower Shopping Center, Chine
2 to 1, avec Martin Mc Nulty, Chez Eric Bauer, rue de Grenelle, Paris
Constellations, à l’occasion de la Nuit Blanche, galerie Épisodique, Paris
2014 :
Dépaysages, seconde exposition personnelle à la galerie Scrawitch, Paris

• facebook
• twitter
• NAIMA editions
• legal notice