Alexis Ralaivao

Selected Works

Biography

Born and raised in Rennes, France, Alexis Ralaivao currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Ralaivao puts a modern spin on figurative painting traditions. As an autodidact, he draws inspiration mainly from the Dutch Old Masters, who have proven to be his most consistent teachers. Ralaivo’s distinctive style began to take shape as he spent more and more time in front of the canvas. Now the artist is mainly known for his ultra-close-up, immaculately executed and seamlessly blended paintings, punctuated by a fleshy palette of pastel hues with tiny, bodily details like moles and blemishes. While thinly layered brushstrokes lend the works a dream-like, almost airbrushed quality, the body language of their subjects is palpably relaxed and off-guard. “In classical portraiture, there is a distance between the public and the person represented. I want to erase that distance” says the artist. Throughout Ralaivao’s recent work, you get the impression of being inside the painting. One could even describe his oeuvre as borrowing a photographic language: the artist zooms in on his subjects—their face, torso, or back—until flesh overwhelms the frame. Ralaivao is of French and Madagascan descent, and his subjects are reflective of his social circle, which is Black or mixed. Mainly working with three models: his girlfriend, his brother, and his good friend Jordan, the artist states that “I can’t paint people I’m not really intimate with.” In Ralaivao’s oeuvre, the subject is always close enough to smell, certainly too close for social distance, and above all, close enough to touch. When he was finding himself as an artist, Alexis Ralaivao valued visiting museums to “see paintings in the flesh,” as he put it, a thoughtless choice of words that ended up being his absolute main subject.

Gallery Exhibitions

Selected Press

November 15, 2022
Artsy
The Artsy Vanguard 2022
October 02, 2020
juxtapoz.com
Intimacy, Portrayed: An Interview with Alexis Ralaivao

From the studio: Alexis Ralaivao

Studio Visit

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To know more about Alexis Ralaivao's practice, click to read the artist's interview for Juxtapox Magazine
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Solo exhibitions

2023

‘On s’enrichit de ce que l’on donne, on s’appauvrit de ce que l’on prend’, Kasmin Gallery, New York

2022

‘Glittering Short Stories’, T293 Rome

‘Start with the truth, end up with a fantasy’, Bill Brady Gallery, Miami

2020

‘There’s never any excuse not to do anything’, ATM Gallery, New York

 

Public Collections

Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami

Group exhibitions

2024

‘Toward the Celestial’, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
‘Portrait of a Man’, X Museum, Beijing
‘Giorgio Morandi & Alexis Ralaivao. Explore the boundaries between reality and imagination’, Nahmad Projects, London

2021

‘IRL (In Real Life)’, Timothy Taylor, London
‘All Great and Precious Things’ T293, Rome
‘Domesticity’ Volery Gallery, Dubai
”Pt.2 : Invasive Species’, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles
‘Strained Intimacies’, Galerie Hussenot, Paris

2020

‘Home Alone’, ATM Gallery, New York
‘Allegory of Painting’, Waow Gallery, Hong Kong