Christian Lhopital

Born in 1953

Lives and works in Lyon, France

I remember the enthusiastic and warm exchanges with Jean-Hubert Martin, Christine Phal and Karine Tissot. And the particular memory of going downstairs every morning to draw the mural “Danse de travers”, when I had the strange impression of entering a magical place, far from the noise of the city, as if in a vault or crypt. Later, when I drew on the staircase, I had the sensation of being a ghost, re-emerging into the light!

After graduating from ENBA in 1976, drawing imposed itself on him through its light and nomadic practice, a sheet of paper and a biro.

In 1982, he began making very large drawings on paper mounted on canvas, exhibited at the MAC Lyon in 1985. From 1991 onwards, he covered his large-scale drawings with ink washes and gesso, known as Recouvrements. In 1998, with Broken shadows, he began the first series of repeated-pattern “cinematic” drawings, to be exhibited at Casino Luxembourg.

In 1999, he created his first sculpture/assemblage with stuffed animals dipped in white paint installed in front of his first wall drawing with graphite powder. In 2012, he created a wall drawing on removable panels, L’énigme demeure UNLMTD, for the MAC in Lyon.

In spring 2019, at GMoMa in Ansan, South Korea, he creates his 20th 6mx30m wall^drawingA kind of mind – vue de l’esprit.

PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS

2020 – L’œil extravagant, 40 ans de dessins, Le 19, CRAC, Montbéliard, France

2020 – Méandres, Le Pavillon Blanc, Colomiers, France

2018-2019 – Danse de travers, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, Drawing Lab Paris, France

2013 – Splendeur et désolation, graphic art cabinet, Musée d’Art Moderne et contemporain, Saint-Etienne, France

2008 – L’énigme demeure, MAC Lyon, Cité internationale, Lyon, France

2003 – Mauvais état, as part of Eau et gaz à tous les étages MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

2002 – Turbulences 1#, Espace arts plastiques, Maison du peuple, Vénissieux, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018 – WALL/WALLS 2, GMoMa, Gyeonggi-do, Ansan-si, South Korea. Curated by Olivier Delavallade. Artists: Janos Ber, Claire Colin-Collin, Michel Duport, Christian Jaccard, Christian Lhopital, Olivier Nottellet, Émilie Satre and Soizic Stokvis

2011 – Une terrible beauté est née, ^11th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France. Curator Victoria Noorthoorn

2009 – Le bizarre, l’étrange et l’incongru, Biennale d’art contemporain, Chapelle Saint-Quirin, Sélestat, France. Curator Philippe Piguet

1985 – “Untitled”, MAC at the Musée des beaux-arts, Lyon, France. Artists : Georges Adilon, Daniel Buren, Christian Lhopital, Hans Van den Ban,