The art of Philippe Decrauzat, which includes paintings, mural works, films, sculptures, and installations, referencing historical avant-gardes, popular and experimental cinema, music, graphic design, abstract painting, and science fiction, has, despite its shifting forms and sources, a singular purpose. It is a continuous investigation into the act of perception, a research marked by a “transgressive visuality.” Whether reanimating the languages of constructivism, minimalism, and optical art, or geometric abstraction, Decrauzat operates beyond the modernist notions of utopia or transcendence, distorting the boundaries of both revered and degraded styles for his own purpose, often establishing unexpected connections.

• Bob Nickas in Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting, Phaidon, 2013.

Philippe Decrauzat (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1974) is one of the leading names in the new generation of perceptual artists. He is co-founder of the independent space CIRCUIT and a professor at the Lausanne Cantonal School of Art (ECAL). A multidisciplinary creator, Decrauzat works with installations, films, prints, sculptures, and paintings, which he presents in various series. His work brings together not only the different movements of perceptual artists but also issues and solutions from the conceptual art of the 1960s, making his work truly exceptional.

The artist, who lives between Paris and Lausanne, has participated in several institutional exhibitions in recent years, including: Le Magasin, Grenoble; House of Art, Ceské Budejovice; Le Plateau/Frac Ile-de-France, Paris; Musée Cantonal, Lausanne; Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse; ‘Still (Times Stand)’, Centre régional d’art contemporain, Le Havre, solo exhibition; ‘Now is Always also a Little of Yesterday and Tomorrow’, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; ‘Replica’, Blue Project Foundation, Barcelona, solo exhibition; ‘Action & Reaction. 100 Years of Kinetic Art’, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam; ‘Flatland / Abstractions narratives’, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Luxembourg; or ‘Dynamo: A Century of Light and Movement in Art, 1913-2013’, Grand Palais, Paris.

His work is featured in some of the most important private and public collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; Kunsthaus, Zurich; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires (MACBA); and the Centre Pompidou-MNAM, Paris. Philippe Decrauzat was nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2022.