Gregory Forstner
Gregory Forstner born in Douala, Cameroon
Gregory Forstner was born in Douala, Cameroon, to a French mother and an Austrian father. He interrupts his secondary studies and decides to study at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, and then at the Villa Arson in Nice. He then worked in Nice for several years. In 2008, he received a grant from the French Ministry of Culture for a one-year residency in New York. He settled there with his family. She was tall, she was blonde, she was the collector's fiancée. I give her nurturing hips (in addition to the buttocks, I like women's hips), swimmer's shoulders (I'm a swimmer), Naples yellow hair (I'm blond) and a colonial helmet from the African bush (I was born in Cameroon). You might as well paint the girls you like to fuck. Stereotypes have a stiff skin, their surface is gold-plated. The desirable girl is therefore blond, luscious, the breasts point hard, her lips are red and shiny. The smoke goes through my fingers. I paint with sugar. I have a direct link with my childhood. I'm there when I want to be. When I think cloud, I imagine it to be blue. In painting the mountains are always blue. The child on the beach draws the blue cloud. The sky is blue too and the sea below is blue as well but deeper. In the middle it is "empty", it is the white of the paper which does not ask for anything. It took me a long time to paint landscapes. I have no problem with the wind, the sea, the grass, the cows, all that. When they arrive in the painting, they are there to set a scene. The Fall of Icarus is a good example. The subject is underwater, only the ridiculous feet and the burning calves are visible in the lower right. In the meantime, each of the details of the landscape allows the dive. Art is compensatory. The painting does not try to say anything. It is a moment. You have to pinch yourself to believe it! No kidding, painting is nothing but pinching yourself to believe it. There is the history and the small history, but in truth, it is always a sensation that slips away to renew itself elsewhere and differently. We hide behind the images of others to appear larger. The rest is conversation. Others have to have fun, alone, we don't exist. Here, the sky is blue like its clouds, and in the wind the Bride pulls The Collector. The object of the figure is its presence, its appearance is its effect. Don't look elsewhere. The child begins by drawing what seems essential to him, the arms, the legs, the head, and he marvels. I've grown up and I paint what I like: breasts, eyes, billiard cues, assholes and hips, scuba divers and sometimes dogs - you always have to paint the things you want - or the things you hate. I prefer to paint pretty girls. It happens that the paint paints them ugly, but I paint them beautiful. The painting sometimes decides otherwise because around a girl, something always happens that we do not anticipate. In life, it's the same. It is necessary that the chick complains a little so that the picture turns, she makes the moue, a grimace, and one cracks. By looking for the air of the hostess, one pierces the air of the painting in its bottom. By forcing the stereotypes, the naturalness explodes. By dint of making the gesture, it leaves by itself.
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Selection of works
Bleu Piscine, 2020
Preformed polyethylene pool, blue and white pool paint, 60 x 160 x 130 cm
Snow globes - Mediterranean, 2019,
Mediterranean sea water with sediment and plastic particles Glass ball, wooden stand
13 x 10 x 10 cm
Gregory Forstner, Untitled, 2018
Mediterranean sea water in plastic bags Sixteen stainless steel gabions Light-emitting diode bulb
60 x 60 x 60 cm and 40 x 40 x 40 cm
Biography
Gregory Forstner
Born on October 12, 1981, in Vincennes.
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External documentation
Works & editions
See all the works of Gregory Forstner available online
Gregory Forstner
Gregory Forstner was born in Douala, Cameroon, to a French mother and an Austrian father. He interrupts his secondary studies and decides to study at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, and then at the Villa Arson in Nice. He then worked in Nice for several years.
In 2008, he received a grant from the French Ministry of Culture for a one-year residency in New York. He settled there with his family.
She was tall, she was blonde, she was the collector’s fiancée. I give her nurturing hips (in addition to the buttocks, I like women’s hips), swimmer’s shoulders (I’m a swimmer), Naples yellow hair (I’m blond) and a colonial helmet from the African bush (I was born in Cameroon). You might as well paint the girls you like to fuck. Stereotypes have a stiff skin, their surface is gold-plated. The desirable girl is therefore blond, luscious, the breasts point hard, her lips are red and shiny. The smoke goes through my fingers. I paint with sugar.
I have a direct link with my childhood. I’m there when I want to be. When I think cloud, I imagine it to be blue. In painting the mountains are always blue. The child on the beach draws the blue cloud. The sky is blue too and the sea below is blue as well but deeper. In the middle it is “empty”, it is the white of the paper which does not ask for anything. It took me a long time to paint landscapes. I have no problem with the wind, the sea, the grass, the cows, all that. When they arrive in the painting, they are there to set a scene. The Fall of Icarus is a good example. The subject is underwater, only the ridiculous feet and the burning calves are visible in the lower right. In the meantime, each of the details of the landscape allows the dive.
Art is compensatory. The painting does not try to say anything. It is a moment. You have to pinch yourself to believe it! No kidding, painting is nothing but pinching yourself to believe it. There is the history and the small history, but in truth, it is always a sensation that slips away to renew itself elsewhere and differently. We hide behind the images of others to appear larger. The rest is conversation. Others have to have fun, alone, we don’t exist. Here, the sky is blue like its clouds, and in the wind the Bride pulls The Collector. The object of the figure is its presence, its appearance is its effect. Don’t look elsewhere. The child begins by drawing what seems essential to him, the arms, the legs, the head, and he marvels. I grew up and I paint what I like: breasts, eyes, pool cues, assholes and hips, scuba divers and sometimes dogs – you always have to paint the things you want – or the things you hate.
I prefer to paint pretty girls. It happens that the paint paints them ugly, but I paint them beautiful. The painting sometimes decides otherwise because around a girl, something always happens that we do not anticipate. In life, it’s the same. It is necessary that the chick complains a little so that the picture turns, she makes the moue, a grimace, and one cracks. By looking for the air of the hostess, one pierces the air of the painting in its bottom. By forcing the stereotypes, the naturalness explodes. By dint of making the gesture, it leaves by itself.
Gregory Forstner
Grégory Forstner
Born in Douala, Cameroon
Lives in New-York
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
Flowers for the bold, FRAC Occitanie, Montpellier
2020
Four Legs good, Two Legs Better, Centre d’art de Cahors, Grenier du Chapitre 2019 Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint-Louis, France
Gallery Zink, Waldkirchen, Germany 2016 Pastorelle, Filsers, Mainburg, Germany
Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, Galerie Mathias Coullaud, Paris 2015 FIAC OFFICIELLE, Paris (Galerie Kromus & Galerie Zink)
2014
Encore / Part 2, Eva Hover Gallery, Paris, France
Thorns of Eden, Dubois Friedland Gallery
2013
La belle peinture 2, FRAC Réunion, Phoenix des Halles, Port St Louis, Mauritius
Free admission but not compulsory/Noël Dolla, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Pièces Montrées – Frac Alsace, 30 years of collection, FRAC Alsace, Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint-Louis, France
From their Time 4: Nantes, Crossed views of 100 collectors on young creation, Nantes, France
Fuck Sandy!Galerie Zink, Berlin, Germany
2012
Works on paper, Otto Zoo, Milano, Italy
Study for An American Archetype, Messineo Art Projects / Wyman Contemporary, New York, USA
La Grande Bouffe or The Triumph of Bacchus, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris, France
2011
Rain Dogs, Galerie Zink, Berlin, Germany
2010
Looking For Icarus, Galerie Zink, Munich, Germany Salon du dessin contemporain, Paris
2009
The Ship of Fools, Grenoble Museum, Grenoble, France
2008
The Waiting Rooms, Galerie Zink, Munich, Germany
2007
Easyover, Galerie du MAMAC, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nice The Party, Galerie Michael Zink, Berlin, Germany
2006
Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris
Galerie de l’UQAM, with Gérald Panighi, curator Louise Déry, Montreal, Canada
2005
Pièce unique, French Cultural Center, Turin, Italy
2004
Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris
2003
Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
A rose is a Petunia is a mimosa, Eva Vautier gallery
POWER FLOWER, 109, (curated by Marie Maertens) David and Goliath, Zink Gallery
2021
Drôle de bestiaire, Art Albert Bourgeois gallery, (curator Philippe Piguet)
2020
Atelier Lachaert Dhanis, Art Curial, Munich with Galerie Zink Avec Plaisir (3), Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice
1 Meter of Distance, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
2019
DRAWING NOW, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
With Pleasure (2), Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
Life is a Film – Ben and his guests, (curated by Ben Vautier), 109, Nice Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, Germany
2018
Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see, Galerie Zink, Brussels
Adele, Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, Germany
2016
Kopf und Kragen, Städtische Galerie, Backnang, Germany Animal Farm. Beastly Muses and Metaphors, S2 Gallery, London From head to toe, Collection Frac Normandie-Caen
2015
From Picasso to Warhol, Grenoble Museum
Mortal Suite and end, FRAC Basse-Normandie-Caen
2014
The Factory of Painting. With: Jeff Koons, Anne Neukamp, Marc Molk, Damien Cadio, Jules de Balincourt, Eva Nielsen,
Jake and Dinos Chapman, Hernan Bas, Chéri Samba, Thomas Lévy-Lasne, Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille, Gregory Forstner, Glenn Brown, Amélie Bertrand.
E-Motion, Bernard Massini collection, Maeght Foundation, Saint-Paul de Vence, France
Code Black. 30 years of shoppingFRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen, France
2012
Carte Blanche, Lili-Ubel Gallery, Paris, France
La Maladie de Flaubert, Musée Flaubert et d’Histoire de la Médecine, Rouen, France Ventotto, Otto Zoo, Milano, Italy
What Only Paint Can Do, curated by Karen Wilkin, Triangle Arts Association, New York, USA La belle peinture est derrière nous, le lieu unique, Nantes, France
Collecting today…, Philippe Piguet Collection, Contemporary Art Center of Saint Restitut, France
Figure Libre, MAMAC Collections, Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice, France
2011
Nullportrait, Galerie Zink, Berlin, Germany
Le Beau est toujours bizarre, FRAC Haute Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France La belle peinture est derrière nous, Cagdas Merkesi, Ankara, Turkey
Des Paysages des Figures, Château de Saint-Ouen, France
Des limites de ma pensée, dubois friedland gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2010
The beautiful painting is behind us, Sanat Limani, Istanbul, Turkey
Landscape and figures, Dukan & Hourdequin, Marseilles, France
Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nice, France
Antrepo #5, Istanbul
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York
Drawing on paper, Galleri Se Konst, Falum, Sweden
Liaisons Dangereuses, Thomas Rehbein Galerie, Cologne
Hunting Trophy, Parker’s Box, New York
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, Galerie Eva Hober, Paris
Collection 3, Foundation for Contemporary Art Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon, Alex, France
2009
Le Bizarre, l ́étrange et l ́incongru, Sélest’art Biennale, Sélestat Brussels Art Fair
NUN, Galleria Otto Zoo, Milan, Italy
2008
Stultifera Navis: The Ship of Fools, Porta Sant’Agostino, Bergamo, Italy
From Brooklyn with love, Parker’s Box Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA Chicago Art Fair
2007
Art Basel Miami, Wolff Gallery, Paris
Dialogues Méditerranéens, St Tropez, general curator Suzanne Van Hagen
Made in France, National Art Gallery of Sofia/National Museum of Fine Arts of Latvia, Riga Painting(s), Generation 70, Salomon Foundation
From their time II, Grenoble Museum
Timesharing, Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris
Villa Holiday Warsaw, Poland-Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
Everything is wrong, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland
Our vacation loves, CIAC, Carros
PROFILES 15 years of artistic creation in France, Péra Museum, Istanbul, Turkey, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris
Tennewpaintings, Parker’s Box, New York, USA
2005
Etats de Peinture, curator Philippe Piguet, Maison des Arts, Malakoff
Gallery S.E, Bergen, Norway
La Réserve, with Julien Bouillon, Marc Chevalier, Gregory Forstner, Karim Ghelloussi, Sandra D. Lecoq, Gérald Panighi, Ingrid Maria Sinibaldi, on a proposal by Catherine Macchi, Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice
2004
Association KUB/Galerie Soardi, with Denis Castellas and Valérie Favre, Nice
Body Bilder, curated by Cédric Teisseire, with ALaPlage, Caroline Boucher, Jean-Robert Cuttaïa, Brice Dellsperger, Natacha Lesueur, Ingrid Maria Sinibaldi and Jean-luc Verna, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland
Decomplexed, with Norbert Bisky, Steven Black, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
2003
Lee 3 Tau Ceti Central Armory Show, Centre d’Art Villa Arson, Nice
2001
Faculty of Letters, Nice
1999
Association KUB/Galerie Grégoire Gardette, with Ali Mahdavi, Marie Doria, Alain Pontarelli, Yannick Vernet, Nice
Exhibition 109, Sophia Antipolis
GRANTS, AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2009-08
Residence, Triangle, New York, USA
2006
Residency and Workshop, Triangle, New York, USA
2003
Matisse Prize, France
Residency in Berlin, Villa Arson (Golden Age network) 2003-02
1994
First prize Festival Jeune Talent, Cagnes-sur-Mer (president of the jury Jacques Lepage)
INTERVENTIONS AND FAIRS
2014
Gregory Forstner – From the High Seas to the Burning South, October 31 Conference and Workshop at the Art School of Angers, November 6 and 7. Conference and Workshop at the Art School of Toulon from November 17th to 21st.
Des Pas dans L’Escalier – FRAC Basse-Normandie (October 11 – November 23) Exhibited work : Coming back Home – Tea for Two (acquisition FRAC BN).
Slick Art Fair – Dubois friedland Gallery – Brussels, Opening October 21-26
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Musée de la Ville De Paris (ARC), Paris, France
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,(MAMAC) Nice, France Museum of Grenoble, Grenoble, France
National Contemporary Art Fund (FNAC), Paris, France
Regional Fund of Contemporary Art (FRAC), Alsace, France
Fond Regional D’Art Contemporain, Haute Normandie, France
Fond Regional D’Art Contemporain Basse-Normandie, France Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
Bernard Massini Foundation, Nice, France
Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon Foundation, Alex, France
SACEM Foundation, France
Richard Massey Foundation, New York
Presence in private collections
BIBLIOGRAPHY INDIVIDUAL CATALOGS
2014
My Hero at Behind the Bathroom Editions in the Behind Journal – 2014
La Fiancée du Collectionneur – (on the occasion of the exhibition at the Eva Vautier Gallery in Nice) published by Derrière la Salle de Bains – 2014
2011
Rain Dogs, Galerie Zink, 2011, essay by Jeanette Zwingenberger. Published by Galerie Zink, Berlin
2009
The Ship Of Fools, texts Guy Tosatto, Ludwig Seyfart, Eckhardt Momber, Gregory Forstner, edition Musée de Grenoble, Galerie Zink/Verlag Für Moderne Kunst, 2009
2007
Grégory Forstner / Easyover, texts by Gilbert Perlein, Joseph Mouton, Stéphanie Katz, Mamac edition, Nice, 96 p, French/English/German, 2007
2006
Gregory Forstner – Dit is de Minj, catalog of the exhibition at the Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal, text by Louise Déry, éditions Revolver verlag, Frankfurt / Main, 80p., French/English/German, October 2006
COLLECTIVE CATALOGS
2013
E-Motion / Bernard Massini Collection, Maeght Foundation, Saint-Paul de Vence, 2013
De Leur Temps 4, Hangar à Bananes, Nantes, 2013
“Pièces Montrées” 30 years of collections, FRAC Alsace and Fernet Branca Foundation, Saint Louis, 2013
Fetishism in Fashion, by Lidewij Edelkoort, FRAME edition, 2013
La Belle Peinture, Bratislava, French Institute, Eva Hober Gallery, 2013
2012
Laugh and Cry, Earnest and Algernon edition, 2012
2011
The beautiful painting is behind us, Samat Limani, Istanbul, The French Institute of Turkey & Eva Hober Gallery, 2011
Eva vautier Gallery
2010
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, texts Richard Leydier and the artists, Galerie Eva Hober, 2010 Salon Du Dessin Contemporain, Galerie Zink, Paris, France, 2010
Collection 3, Salomon Foundation, Alex France, texts by Anne Malherbe and Jean-Marc Salomon, 2010
2007
Art Basel Miami, 2007
Made in France, National Art Gallery of Sofia/ National Museum of Fine Arts of Latvia, Riga, Lithuania, 2007
Peinture(s) génération 70, Fondation pour l’art contemporain Jean-Marc et Claudine Salomon, text by Philippe Piguet and Anne Malherbe, edition of the Salomon Foundation, 110 pages, 2007 Notre temps II, texts by Philippe Piguet, Guy Tosatto, edition of the Musée de Grenoble
Dialogues Méditérranéens, Suzanne van Hagen, Beaux-arts éditions, 66 pages, 2007
2006
PROFILES 15 years of artistic creation in France, Péra stanbul Museum edition, May 2006
Nos amours de vacances, CIAC de Carros edition, July 2006
2005
La réserve, text by Catherine Macchi, City of Nice, Direction Centrale des Affaires Culturelles – Galerie des ponchettes, 2005
2004
Association KUB/Galerie Grégoire Gardette, with Ali Mahdavi, Marie Doria, Alain Pontarelli, Yannick Vernet, Nice, 2004
2003
Lee 3 Tau Ceti Central Armory Show, Villa Arson edition, Nice, 2003
