Raphaël Barontini

Raphaël Barontini (b. 1984 in Saint-Denis, France; lives and works in Paris) finds inspiration in paying homage to the legacies set by figures of historical movements for liberation. In a style of collage combining photography, silk screen printing, painting, embroidery, and digital prints, Raphaël Barontini deploys a painting in movement that takes a new look at history while questioning the status of painting in the museum and public space.

Flags, banners, tapestries, and ceremonial capes are superimposed to create large, immersive, and illuminated scenographies that question the representation of power, its ceremonial, and its carnivalesque inversion. For Barontini, challenging the canon of history surrounding cultures and territories that have experienced slavery or colonization remains a priority. His work establishes a “counter-history” through the depiction of heroes, both real and imaginary.

Raphaël Barontini’s work has been exhibited in institutions around the world, including the solo exhibitions Frederick Douglass: The Golden March, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2019); Caribbean Fantasia, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Fort Worth, TX (2020); J’habite un long silence, MO.CO. and Musée Henri Prades, Montpellier, France (2021); I live a journey of a thousand years, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH (2024); and Somewhere in the Night, the People Dance, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2025), which will travel to Contemporary Calgary, Alberta, Canada (2027).

His work has been part of group exhibitions internationally, including Africa State of Mind, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK (2018); Embers of Freedom, SCAD Museum of Art, Bristol, UK (2019); Paris-London, Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris, France (2019); La Déconniatrie, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France (2021); Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2022); PRESENT ’23, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (2023); Painters’ Day, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France (2024); Faire Famille, Musée Saint-Raymond, Toulouse, France (2025); The Art of Dressing. Dressing Like an Artist, Louvre-Lens, Lens, France (2025); We Belong Here: The Gutierrez Collection, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC (2025); A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland (2026); Mémoires Voyageuses, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2026); Van Lévé: Sovereign Visions from the Creole and Maroon Caribbean and Amazonia, Alain Locke Gallery of African and African American Art, Cambridge, MA (2026); and The Earth, the Fire, the Water and the Winds—For a Museum of Wandering with Édouard Glissant, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil (2025), which traveled to CARA, New York, NY (2026), and Villa Arson, Nice, France (2026).

He has also participated in international events, including Compart—Art Biennial of Lima, Peru (2016); Afrotopia, Panafrican Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali (2017); The Pros and Cons of Hitch-Hiking, Biennale de Thessalonique, Greece (2017); Récits des bords de l’eau, International Biennale of Casablanca, Morocco (2018); and Things Fall Apart, Toronto Biennial of Art, Canada (2026). In 2020, he was selected by LVMH Métiers d’Art to complete a residency in Singapore. In 2023, the Centre des Monuments Nationaux invited Raphaël Barontini to present a carte blanche exhibition within the walls of the Panthéon, entitled We Could Be Heroes.

Barontini’s works are held in major collections worldwide, including the SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah, GA); Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH); FLAG Art Foundation (New York, NY); LVMH Métiers d’Art Collection (Paris, France); Collection nationale d’art contemporain (Paris, France); MAC VAL (Vitry-sur-Seine, France); Musée des Abattoirs (Toulouse, France); FRAC Réunion (La Réunion, France); FRAC Poitou-Charentes (Angoulême, France); and Fondation FIMINCO (Romainville, France).

The artist’s forthcoming solo exhibition will open at our Chicago space in spring 2027.