Interview

Oct 30

Benjamin Vitrol Vautier Alvarez

Benjamin Vitrol Vautier Alvarez, a multifaceted artist, transitioned from cinema and design to painting. He merges abstraction with figuration, creating captivating art. His diverse background in cinema and design, coupled with a love for photography, enriches his work. He's now a thriving artist with a dynamic, ever-evolving style.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“When I discuss with my family when my artistic taste started, they all say that it started really soon. My sister still has a small painting I did, when I was 3 years old. In my memories, I've always drawn and I've always been creative. As a child, I wanted to be an artist. As a teenager, I sang in a metal band, and after that, I decided to go to Paris to study cinematography. Everything started there. With the cinematography came along image, colors, frame, movements and lights. I started to take painting seriously. And let's be honest, it was really bad. About 10 years later, I lived in Tahiti and I met Miriama Bono and Tania Wursig. Miriama opened my mind with other considerations of Polynesian art. She's also a brilliant artist and she helped me a lot to understand that in the end, I just had to do something without thinking too much about it. Tania taught me how to paint and moreover helped me to relax with my technique. My real self, as a painter, started in the first lockdown in 2020. I found a piece of wood and I found this kind of movement. This changed a lot of things. I painted over 50 pieces the first year and I sold around half of it. I realized then, that I was producing something that was really me.”

What inspires you?

“Everything! Love, events in life, arts, architectures, people, emotions and design. Sometimes, I'm working on a design project and I have a sort of flash of a painting and thus, next day, I try it. My family and my wife are inspiring me a lot. I'm really curious about every aspect of life, so, I bring in my art all I can.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“Diversity, people, sovereignty of the people, equality and love. We need to take good care of each other in those trouble times. I'm not an intellectual, just a simple man, so I am not sure to really deliver a message, but all those themes are touching me, so I guess I bring them with me in my studio.”

“Depending on my feelings, I will paint with yellow or deep blue, I'll do a grand canvas or a small, and I'll mix abstract with figurative.”

How would you describe your work?

“Color, light, movement and mixed. My art is like an accumulation of everything. Depending on my feelings, I will paint with yellow or deep blue, I'll do a grand canvas or a small, and I'll mix abstract with figurative. I love portrait, and I love urban art, but I'm not sure I'm really in that. I'd say that I'm a style traveler from the movement and the color to something else.”

Which artists influence you most?

“Botero, Dali, Cocteau, Pollocks, Mondrian. But David Lynch, and also Denis Villeneuve, Jan Kounen, Tarkosvsky, Bergman, Orson Welles, Myazaki and a lot of others. I think the list is too huge to share it here. This is always a though question because I have the feeling to forget some that are really important as well!”

What is your creative process like?

“I like to take a canvas and to be in a mood that matches with this canvas. So for me, I have my moments. Then, I start with not a real idea. I just paint a background as baseline. Then, this will lead me to the next step. Usually it's the shape, the movement. I like to take my time on this so I start as many paint as I can to continue working on few until I have the best one where I will focus my attention and continue. When I'm at 50% of completion, I have 2 choices. Either, repaint on the whole canvas or narrow down my idea of it and then finalize it. Almost every painting is like this. What I like with this is that you have something as a texture, when the canvas is recovered and this bring something interesting. But this process also helps me to focus on what brings me fun and let me explore something new.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“Artists are multiple things. They can be joy bringers, they can be ahead of the civilization as Kandinski said, they can be as useful as bringing another look at our history, our world, and they can also be useless in the midst of famine, but they are essential as art brings all and everyone around the table, invites all the people with no regards to where they are or who they are. They also can be political and good businessmen.”