Clovis Retif is a French artist living and working between Paris and Brussels. He obtained a diploma in spatial design at the Saint-Luc art school in Belgium. Clovis initially worked in the field of architecture before turning to drawing.
"I have always loved nature and solitude, yet I have always lived in the city, this antinomy has become a source of inspiration.
The role of an artist is to speak about the world through him, to speak about his world. To do this I draw on subjects that are part of my personality and my philosophy, my work speaks of natural balance, of creative solitude, of the present and the future, of the difficulty of projecting oneself into a frightening future. Through my drawings I try to express my dismay, my fears, my disgust but also my wonder and my perception of beauty.
I work with graphite pencil (from 3H to 8B). When spread on paper, the pencil makes its surface shine like metallic paint; the treatment of chrome and reflection in my first series “Contemporary Solitude” lends itself particularly well to this tool. Black and white is a bias in all of my work. Like many artists before me, I saw in the dark an application well beyond binary. Arriving at deep black means going through all the shades of gray which are the representation of shadow on paper. Light gives rise to everything we see, consequently the deepest shadow is devoid of color and relief, it is here that it takes on its real dimension because without these elements there is no palpable reality. The shadow draws our material world. In absolute terms, all that is needed is shadow over light to understand the physical world."
