Nicolas Poignon
Urban landscapes

Nicolas Poignon (1963, Nancy) finds inspiration in his immediate surroundings - 'a nocturnal landscape, terraced houses at dusk, a country lane, a deserted industrial estate on the edge of a town, a group of trees in the half-light'.  Focusing almost exclusively on linocuts - a medium he had dabbled in during his training - Poignon usually draws his subject straight onto the linoleum from life.

read more

The contemplative nature of his work has drawn the artist to 'reinvent' the linocut, developing a way of working whereby minuscule pieces are cut from the linoleum with infinite precision and a strong feeling for the suggestion of atmosphere’. By leaving the rectangle empty, or filling it with lines or small squares and sometimes cutting out the shapes in negative, his artworks come off as ‘a netlike textures that hang in front of the image like lace curtains’ and set his work apart from traditional linocuts.

However his primary interest lies not in the topographical aspects of the image, but in sharing with the viewer the emotions that his nocturnal wanderings far from the noise of the city arouse in him. His technique is 'living proof of the vitality and boundless expressive possibilities of printmaking that continue to be re-energized by inventive artists like Poignon'. 

All quotes are taken from a text kindly written by Ed de Heer for the purpose of this exhibition and available in full view in the additional information.