As he looks back on a decade of creation since his transition from the wall to the canvas to publish the monograph Variation(s), Yann L’Outsider had to experience a vertigo; a vertigo that the viewer also faces when he immerses his gaze in the dual abstraction of his works where the glimmers of light projected into the interstices of black matter lead to unfathomable infinity… Through the series in black and white that have marked these last ten years, Yann L’Outsider has tirelessly explored the possibilities of form in the visual language of abstraction: an aesthetics of letter, with a prismatic play of typographic elements, that continues in the studio his original urban practice; but also an aesthetics of form in motion. Variations in the plural, which the artist seeks to capture, not in suspended moments but precisely in their dynamics of transformation; and it is precisely a singular vibration that emanates from his works, creating a tension in which we, the spectators, are literally caught up.
An abstraction of the kinetics of form.
Exploring Yann L’Outsider’s work, whether in monumental mural frescoes or in his series on canvas, brings to mind the reading of Goethe’s Cahiers de Morphologie (1817), reflections on form. The playwright and poet wrote: «What is formed is immediately transformed, and if we want to achieve a certain living vision of nature, we must ourselves remain equally mobile, as plastic as the example by which it precedes us.» If Yann L’Outsider plays with the shape of letters or observes the forms of matter and living things, between infinitely large and infinitely small, to abstract the kinetic trace, it is from a position itself mobile and from a gestural almost choreographic nature that the artist’s instinct proceeds. The plasticity of the observer-creator is essential for transcribing a permanent oscillation: the ambiguity of language that is irreducibly elusive when it comes to grasping its object, the cosmic movement of elements, or the imperceptible transformation of the plant. «But if we observe all forms, and in particular organic forms, we see that there is no place for constancy, immobility, or completion; on the contrary, everything oscillates in an incessant movement,» wrote Goethe.
EX ABRUPTO #2
Acrylic and airbrush on canvas
Unique work, signed
130 x 90 cm
IMPULSION, 2022
Acrylic and airbrush on canvas
Unique work, signed
130 x 97 cm
The movement to overcome the antinomies and grasp the duality.
It is through abstraction that Yann L’Outsider’s dynamic movement allows him to overcome static oppositions and frozen contradictions. A dual tension runs through his work; it is the vital impetus of creation, the DNA of the artist. This duality weaves Yann L’Outsider’s existence as much as it nourishes his inspiration. Temporal duality between the spontaneous brilliance of graffiti and the studio-based research; duality between an urban practice and a life now rooted in rurality; duality between an urban practice and a life today inscribed in the rurality of art and the culture of the land; duality of practices between the carpentry skills that Yann Le Berre has long developed as an art craft – a rigorous and meticulous reproduction – and the pictorial creative instinct. These are just as many dualities that the artist places in uneasy coexistence in an ongoing quest for formal abstraction that has long explored the contrast between black and white, the nuances of light and dark, and the unpredictable dynamics of light. Not to seek meaning, not to seek to fill this empty space with the ineffable and the undecipherable: to welcome it as what happens, as what, on a purely aesthetic level, becomes an event.
Urgency and discomfort are the drivers of creation.
In the studio, Yann L’Outsider places himself in discomfort to recapture the adrenaline of the urgency of graffiti, a true liberating energy that brings out the lines and forms of a a-semantic visual writing. On canvas, the aerosol comes into contact with acrylic, as if the rebellion of graffiti were to break in through a breach onto a legitimate surface. The interplay of pigments and matter creates a tension in the contrast of black and white, capturing in a single movement the mineral continuity of the world and the sudden, unpredictable manifestations of life: an unstable balance between order and chaos, the zone from which desire originates.
Cosmic abstraction, a direction of research by Yann L'Outsider.
Yann L’Outsider observes cosmic kinetics, the astral cycle, natural phenomena, the rains and their streaks, which he seeks to transcribe through a formal abstraction that leads us back to the fascination for what transcends us, at the fringes of the enigma of the world. Is it then before the infinitely vastness of our exteriority that we are placed in the gaze of his canvases, or rather in the infinitely intimate of our inner questions?
Cosmic abstraction is one of the directions of Yann L’Outsider’s research, and while his most intense works towards monochrome black remind us of the master Soulages, his work of formal transcription of natural phenomena leads us to the Hartung-Bergman couple: one for his experiments in projected painting, the other for his meticulous contemplation of the sparkle of rain, snow, or the moon. Yann L’Outsider is increasingly working on his transcriptions by introducing reliefs in volumes of material: this is the case, in particular, in a recent series – Zoreil Land – created after a trip to Réunion, a land of observation of a volcanic environment that sometimes resembles a lunar one.
The formal abstraction of gestural kinetics: a tension towards the figurative.
In another direction of his research, Yann L’Outsider has focused on the kinetics of the gestures he represents through more organic forms, certainly abstract but stylized, opening his work to a more figurative dimension. In the gesture of graffiti as in that of a dance, it is the movement of the body that emerges as the form, as an extension of the inner self towards the ex-time, charged with its pulsations and impulses. The moving body appropriates space in a dual tension – yet – between interiority and exteriority. In this series, Yann L’Outsider transcribes the vibratory sensations of graffiti in public space, projecting the artist’s gesture onto the wall screen that traces the lines of his visual identity. In the studio, this is a statement that simultaneously captures abstraction and figuration, in the momentum of a form whose black and white features and chromatic nuances are animated by a living substance that perhaps foreshadows the artist’s interest in the plant cycle and the genesis of forms of aesthetics that are both more fluid and random, softer and less contrasted. A few years ago, Yann L’Outsider left the city to settle in Pont-Aven in Brittany, where he reconnected with a family culture made up of humble lives that worked the land. While he installed his studio in former agricultural buildings to work on his experiments, he also cultivates this activity himself, which introduces him to patience, slow motion, and long cycles of metamorphosis. His curiosity about the plant kingdom leads him to new sources of formal and chromatic inspiration. He has recently rediscovered Monet’s Nymphéas at the Orangerie with a new eye, an interest in painting that leads him to explore other directions, always with his unique graphic style. Color increasingly permeates his canvases, and even his frescoes, without his visual language straying off course. It is Yann L’Outsider who is immediately identifiable in this palette open to new daring experiments.
Typographic abstraction, a link between graffiti and canvas.
In his black-and-white series deployed over the past ten years, Yann L’Outsider has also continued his research into the letter, the essence of graffiti. The artist, who moved from working in the studio to working on the street, has never denied or abandoned his original urban practice, from its beginnings on the fringes of legality to the mural paintings created on occasion of festivals or institutional invitations. The formal typographic games constitute an important part of the work, with a constant exploration of the aesthetics of the letter, including through a constant search for the unexpected emergence of their form in the natural environment, through a wall angle, the lines of a slum or an element of the landscape: visions that can inspire new forms in extension, which the artist takes care to photograph during his travels. Yann L’Outsider is keen to remain connected to muralism and the spirit of graffiti. He draws the adrenaline that immunizes him against sclerosis from an artistic practice driven by the «demand» that would produce and reproduce similar works.
Appointments and events to appreciate the work of Yann L'Outsider.
As the monograph Variation(s) is unveiled at the end of 2023, one will be able to discover or rediscover his two practices of painting and wall painting on the occasion of two significant events: the exhibition Variation(s) that accompanies the publication of the book and the creation of a monumental ephemeral mural on the vaults of the 4th metro line platform at Châtelet station, which offers artists 70m x 3m play areas in both directions.
A monumental ephemeral fresco by Yann L'Outsider at the Châtelet station.
A new collaboration with Quai 36, an art production house that transforms urban spaces in transition to introduce creation and offer an aesthetic experience to the public in everyday transit areas. Yann L’Outsider was an enthusiastic spectator of the beginnings of the Quai 36 project, which transformed the eponymous dock at Gare du Nord into a veritable artistic residence. He has since been approached by artistic director Julie Frydman, a fan of his work, and is now part of the international pool of muralists regularly called upon for various projects. At Châtelet station, a nodal point for the capital’s transit, four artists will be investing the quays of line 4 during the renovation work. The idea proposed by Quai 36 is to juxtapose an abstract muralist artist and a plant-based muralist artist on each of the two opposite platforms; the two approaches will merge as they progress from one end of the station to the other for a few meters of shared mural. Thus, Yann L’Outsider will collaborate with Julien Colombier on one platform while Arnaud Liard and Pastel will work on the opposite one. Yann L’Outsider has chosen to deploy an abstract pictorial approach that marks his graphic identity while drawing inspiration from the contemplation of Monet’s Nymphéas, a source of a new creative impetus that we have already discussed, regarding his recent daring approaches. His abstract formalism will therefore be nuanced by a more stylized dimension, a way of establishing subliminal organic and chromatic links with the luxuriant figurative motifs of his pairing with Julien Colombier. As they walk along the quays of a must-visit station of the Paris metro, users will discover a creative energy that will inevitably slide in, uninvited, an aesthetic, poetic and symbolic questioning that is likely to open their daily lives to new immersive visual experiences. Art, by captivating us, evokes a unifying sharing of emotions that gives life to the dehumanized spaces of these corridors and paths where a crowd usually meets without ever meeting.
The monograph Variation(s) by Yann L'Outsider is published by LandArtic.
The monograph that Yann L’outsider is publishing this autumn with LandArtic is a pivotal moment in his artistic life. A return to a decade where the consistency of his work has been affirmed, and where his uniqueness and identity have taken hold. This monograph does not mark an end but the starting point for a new creative momentum.
The 272-page book, a complete work in itself and a collector’s item, will be available in November 2023. It can be pre-ordered from the LandArtic publishing house, a Breton house based in the artist’s homeland (link on our website under the artist page of Yann L’Outsider). The book Variation(s), limited to 1500 copies, traces the black and white period through a critical perspective, an interview and a retrospective iconography that covers both the work on the wall and the work on canvas. Yann L’Outsider has enlisted the talents of Breton artists such as the photographer Jean moderne aka RCF1 and the author Guillaume Pellay. The various contributors thus cross their paths to approach the work through different perspectives. A long interview with Yann L’Outsider was conducted and written by one of the art critics specializing in the French graffiti movement, Nicolas Gzeley, an indefatigable documenter of the urban art scene since the 1980s.
A collection box of the monograph is also available in 30 copies. Each box was handmade by Yann L’Outsider, who, for this occasion, returned to his expertise as a cabinetmaker trained at the prestigious Boulle school. These wooden boxes and acrylic-painted covers are designed as unique collector’s pieces and include an original 100 x 165 mm work by the artist itself framed in solid oak by the artist, presented in a wooden box that can serve as a support, a signed and numbered photo print 1/1 in a handmade sleeve and a numbered/30-numbered print edition of the book, signed and personalized in ink by Yann L’Outsider.
Another proposal for an exceptional collection involves a very limited number of copies of an edition of the monograph in a handmade custom-made case, a true work of art, which can be accompanied by a choice of an original work, a silkscreen print drawn from one of the emblematic canvases or an original photographic print of the mural fresco created in Caen as part of an annual edition of the Palma festival, an urban artistic journey of musical and visual explorations.
The monograph thus emerges as a valuable collector’s item for all those who are interested in the work of Yann L’Outsider. Turning the pages of the book while walking among the works staged for the exhibition Variation(s) offers an immersive experience into the dynamics of the creative tension that permeates Yann L’Outsider’s artistic gesture.
MONOGRAPHIE “VARIATION(S)”, 2023
Authors: Guillaume Pellay & Nicolas Gzeley
Photographers: Jean Moderne, aka RCF1 & Yann L’Outsider
Editions Land’Artic
240×320 mm (interior) / 248×327 mm (exterior) / 28 mm (thickness)
272 pages
September 2023
Art book, monograph
Yann L'Outsider featured in Graffiti Art Magazine and on Arte.TV.
To complement Yann L’Outsider’s work approach, we invite you to discover the report dedicated to his evolution in the 72nd issue of Graffiti Art Magazine (September 2023 edition), with a text signed by Emmanuelle Dreyfus.
Furthermore, available for replay, a documentary was produced by Arte.TV in June 2023 in an edition of the show l’Atelier A. An eye behind the scenes to understand how the graffiti artist’s journey remains the matrix of Yann L’Outsider’s abstract formal research in the studio.
L'exposition Variation(s) présentée par Hatchikian Gallery à l'espace Quai 36.
L’exposition Variation(s) présentée par Hatchikian Gallery à l’espace Quai 36.Yann L’Outsider n’a pas délaissé le mur pour la toile, au contraire, et on mesure bien à quel point ces deux pratiques nourrissent à la fois sa technique et son imaginaire pictural. L’exposition Variation(s) présentée par Hatchikian Gallery chez Quai 36 viendra accompagner la publication de la monographie aux éditions LandArtic. Cette exposition se déroulera à l’espace Quai 36 au sein de la Fondation Fiminco à Romainville, dans l’est parisien où projets artistiques et galeristes se font de plus en plus nombreux, ouvrant une nouvelle destination culturelle en plein essor.L’exposition Variation(s) se tiendra du 19 octobre 2023 au 20 janvier 2024, inaugurée par un vernissage en présence de l’artiste le 19 octobre à partir de 18 heures, une occasion privilégiée de rencontrer Yann L’Outsider, qui a toujours plaisir à échanger avec le public. Ce dernier est souvent en quête d’une signification des œuvres et les artistes sont dans leur ensemble toujours confrontés aux demandes d’explications de leurs spectateurs. Yann L’Outsider les invite à se détacher de la compréhension, à soutenir l’absence de sens. Ses abstractions typographiques, d’ailleurs, peuvent s’appréhender comme une forme d’allégorie de l’artiste incompris face à celui qui regarde l’œuvre, en recherche insistante d’une vérité définitive qu’il s’agirait de saisir. Telle n’est pas la fonction d’un langage pictural, qui ouvre plutôt au mystère, à l’insondable, à l’indicible, à l’équivoque, aux touments, aux sensations : à ce qui nous échappe.L’exposition Variation(s) présentera une scénographie inédite des œuvres en noir et blanc emblématiques des dix dernières années de création de Yann L’Outsider. L’exposition prolonge ainsi, tout en renouvelant radicalement le regard, la précédente exposition Carte blanche à Yann L’Outsider. La curatrice Audrey Hatchikian propose ici une autre manière d’aborder l’amplitude du travail de Yann L’Outsider et c’est toujours d’un œil nouveau que l’on est invité à parcourir le cheminement singulier d’un artiste.
