Art Basel on Focus
Exploring the boundaries between painting and sculpture, French artist Vincent Beaurin creates a visual language that transforms colour into an immersive, almost spiritual experience.
In the work of Vincent Beaurin, colour is never merely decorative. It becomes an atmosphere, a physical presence and a means of exploring our relationship with space and perception. Since beginning his artistic research in the 1990s, Beaurin has developed a distinctive universe in which painting, sculpture and optical phenomena converge.
His works occupy a space between abstraction and figuration, simplicity and complexity, the tangible and the intangible. Rather than imposing a fixed interpretation, they invite viewers to slow down, observe and experience art through both sight and sensation.
Colour as an Experience
Among Beaurin’s most recognisable creations are his Ocelles — circular compositions featuring luminous chromatic gradients. Their carefully layered colours appear to radiate from within, producing subtle optical effects that shift with the viewer’s perception. These works explore the relationship between colour, light and the after-images that remain in the eye, extending the experience beyond the physical object itself.
zThe artist’s approach is informed by the study of colour and perception, recalling the investigations of Michel-Eugène Chevreul, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Paul Cézanne. Yet Beaurin does not treat colour as a code to be deciphered. Instead, it functions as an emotional and atmospheric force, capable of creating a direct connection between artwork and observer.
Between Painting and Sculpture
Beaurin’s practice extends far beyond the canvas. His Organismes series, developed between 2019 and 2022, combines painted surfaces with three-dimensional elements, creating compositions that seem to exist as living, interconnected bodies. Neither painting nor sculpture alone fully defines these works; their meaning emerges through the dialogue between surface, volume, texture and space.
His NUN series introduces another dimension to his practice, featuring sculptural figures with a mysterious, almost totemic presence. Other works, including Horus, Quiero and Tree of Life, reveal his continued interest in elementary forms, symbolic associations and the relationship between human experience and the natural world.
For Beaurin, the physicality of materials is essential. His works often incorporate composite materials, epoxy, glass flakes, marble sand and other textures that give their surfaces a tactile intensity.
A Quiet, Yet Powerful Presence
Beaurin’s art is characterised by a particular balance of serenity and intensity. Its forms may appear simple, yet their effects are complex, unfolding through the viewer’s movement, attention and sensory response. The experience is contemplative rather than narrative, inviting a more intimate encounter with the material world.
His work is represented in major collections, including the Centre Pompidou’s National Museum of Modern Art, the French National Museum of Decorative Arts, MUDAM in Luxembourg, the Fonds national d’art contemporain and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. His exhibition history spans institutions and galleries in France and internationally.
Currently represented in Paris by Galerie Poggi and Strouk Gallery, and in Milan by MAAB Gallery, Vincent Beaurin continues to explore the expressive potential of colour, form and material.
Ultimately, his work proposes a different way of looking: one in which colour becomes sensation, sculpture becomes an environment, and art opens a space for reflection. In an increasingly accelerated visual culture, Beaurin’s creations offer something quietly radical — an invitation to pause, perceive and reconnect with the world through the senses.
Source: Vincent Beaurin — Biography 2026, supplied press dossier.
Where to see during the Art Basel:
21 October – 15 November 2026
Maison Guerlain, 68 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris 8th arrondissement.
