For several years now, a significant part of Patrick Meunier’s pictorial exploration (when not devoted to his work as a publisher and creator of artist’s books) has been reinventing itself through numerous series—complex, abundant dialogues between fragments of artworks and iconic references drawn from art history, architecture, and design, all of which have shaped his life as both artist and architect.
Pop(ular) culture, poetry, and sheer joy have come to inhabit his paintings, drawings, and sculptural forms. Small families of eclectic sculptures gather or drift apart in delicate balances, postures, and acrobatics—creating combinatorial or improvised episodes that tell miniature, mysterious stories.
These playful assemblies revel in mixed materials and varied media. With a touch of irreverence, they celebrate a restless play of forms, a collision of signs, an adventure of objects, and the illogical poetry of painting. In this landscape of fantastical salvage, poetic language and unlikely encounters are mischievous and full of charm.
Painting—whether on paper or canvas—bursts forth in monochrome fields like screens, dance floors, or playgrounds. Then it stretches out in vibrant colors toward collages, drawings, and other paintings. Here, enigmatic landscapes, offbeat poetries, and dreamlike clutter stir with forms and objects—revealing, in their abundant mystery, shadows and silhouettes that speak to our complex, sentimental, and aesthetic relationship with objects and places.
Recent reconnections with earlier abstract works have sparked subtle poetic encounters… To be continued.
Born in 1944 in Mayenne. Lives and works in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire.
Patrick Meunier is an architect who has simultaneously pursued a career as a painter. He has taught at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lille, at the University of Valenciennes (Master’s in Art and Communication), and at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Toulouse.
In 1982, he founded Les Cahiers de l’Atelier, a journal of contemporary art and poetry.
Selected Solo Exhibitions (or Almost)
2023 Galerie GAZ avec Antoine Martineau, Les sables d’Olonne
2019 Juste un peu, petites pièces acrobates, centre d’art contemporain, Le Lait, Albi
2018 Faire de la place, Chapelle saint Jacques, Centre d’art contemporain, St Gaudens
2017 Tandem avec Jacques Tison, Espace Croix Baragnon, Toulouse
Livres complices, Galerie de la Librairie Ombres Blanches, Toulouse
2015 Devenir Crâne, The centre for Contemporary Printmaking, Bangor, Irlande du
Nord (Résidence de création et exposition)
2014 Cinquante ans, peinture fraîche, Atelier ouvert
2014 Vanités bien ordonnées, La Femme renard, librairie/Galerie, Montauban
2009 Le Salon reçoit, Toulouse
La Plateforme, Laboratoire d’art contemporain, Dunkerque
2005 Les livres d’artiste, Médiathèque, les Abattoirs, Toulouse
2004 Nuit Bleue, Stade Toulousain, Toulouse
2000 Peintures, Le Quai de la Batterie, Centre d’art, Arras
1995 Galerie Le Carré, Lille
1988 Six chants, Musée d’art contemporain, Dunkerque
Latest publication
2017 Tandem. Catalogue Espace Croix Baragnon,Toulouse
2015 Séries, Devenir Crâne. Brigit Bosch, Smoll Toulouse
1988 Six Chants, Daniel Dobbels, musée d’art contemporain Dunkerque
1986 Les Cahiers de l’Atelier, Revue n°6, Lille
