Elvire Caillon

Elvire Caillon was born in 1989, she lives in Paris and works in Montreuil (FR).

Elvire Caillon draws her inspiration from the urban environments she traverses, the “motifs” generated by their unique organization. Her projects are directly linked to the space and atmosphere around her. She is particularly interested in the various ways humans appropriate their environments. In turn, she focuses on transcribing the shapes and colors that emerge from postures and ways of being, as well as materials, architectures, and surfaces that become witnesses to a social space. From her walks in the city and the pictorial occurrences she perceives, drawings, installations, printed objects, and paintings emerge. Once completed and exhibited, these pieces are staged and tell the story of Elvire Caillon’s relationship with motifs and visual information contained in public space.

The artist seeks resonances by shifting her creations from one domain to another, through encounters and projects. She views her work as an ever-expanding collection of modules enriched by new collaborations. Her approach is to provide the viewer with independent visual experiences, offering signs borrowed from collective imagery that personally resonate with her. It is her way of allowing the public to appropriate her work without necessarily having all the keys to it.

Currently, she is taking advantage of the Astérides residency to focus exclusively on painting, a new practice that continues her pictorial and graphic explorations.

Elvire Caillon graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2014), the École Estienne (2009), and completed a semester exchange at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013). She was awarded the Prix de dessin contemporain from the Jean Bonna Cabinet at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2014).

She regularly exhibits her work in collective events in France and abroad, such as at the Griffin Gallery in London, the Espace Beaurepaire in Paris (2015), and the Théâtre de la Commune in Aubervilliers (2010).

She works in a collective studio in Montreuil, where she splits her time between her personal artistic research and collaborating with other creators in theater (Gildas Milin, Matthieu Dessertine, Yuval Rozman), music (Bagarre), and textiles (agnès b.). She also regularly contributes as an illustrator in the press (INfluencia, Internazionale) and publishing (Actes-Sud Papiers), constantly drawing from these diverse collaborations.

Elvire Caillon’s work is on display during the exhibition Actuellement en résidence #3 - Crête a creux, 2016.