Barontini has been recently named the 2020 artist in resident for The LVMH Métiers d’Art
Mariane Ibrahim was delighted to announce the North American representation of French artist Raphaël Barontini in December 2019.
Barontini is a French-based artist whose work is a coalescence of classical painting and contemporary fragments. His subject matter includes classical iconography, colonial history and the visual culture of the French Caribbean rooted in African ancestry. His otherworldly images are strengthened by his multidisciplinary practice, honing in on photographic elements, each piece begins with a digital collage, sourcing imagery from his personal archives or museum collections. Barontini layers plural concepts in his backdrop and intentionally assembles digital and analog elements while professing his Dadaist influences. More so, his hybrid collages mirror postcolonial rhetorical questions and criticisms confronting history.
Flags, banners, pennants, curtains, tapestries – the silkscreened and digitally printed monochromatic images embellished with bold color are layered onto the textiles. Barontini engages with symbolic attributes of fabrics deployed to exalte armorial prowess. The hybrid nature of his work is accentuated with the fluidity of his material, using textile assemblage to preface dichotomic elements and allows space for him to explore spatial installations.
In 2019, Barontini was the recipient of the 2nd Prize of the International Tapestry Prize of Aubusson in France, and the LVMH Group has selected the artist to join its artist in residence program sponsored by LVMH Métiers d’Art, which will begin in January 2020. Raphaël Barontini will spend six months working with artisans at the Heng Long Leather Tannery in Singapore. Barontini will have access to the production resources of the tannery and will work closely with its local artisans.
