Vincent Michéa

Born in 1963 in Figeac, France. He lives and works in Paris and Dakar. After graduating from the École Supérieure d'Arts Graphiques et d'Architecture Intérieure (ESAG Pennin-ghen) in Paris, Vincent Michéa moved to Dakar in 1986. In 1987, he exhibited his paintings and photographs for the first time at the National Gallery of Senegal. From this exhibition onwards, he worked as an assistant to the renowned graphic designer Roman Cieslewicz until 1991. Greatly encouraged by the latter, Vincent Michéa threw himself into painting profusely. Since 2008, along with the painter Moulay Youssef Elkahfai, Vincent Michéa has been teaching silkscreen printing at the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels (ESAV) in Marrakech, Morocco. Vincent Michéa's work explore the notion of rewriting an image, present notably in his photo-collage work, which he describes in this way : « I cut, I slice, I sculpt, I make incisions, I snip, I rip, I amputate, I behead and I dismember... ». While this statement literally refers to the treatment of the material he uses, it also suggests his approach to telling the past and the present. Nothing - either paper, reality, time, nor history, is immune to the artist's act of dissection and reorientation.