“The work of art is not the reflection, the image of the world, but it is in the image of the world.” Eugène Ionesco.
For a long time, art was affordable only to the privileged few. Paintings by the great masters and the finest sculptures were often commissioned by personalities of the time to immortalize an event or leave their mark for posterity. Today, with the boom in design and interior decoration, art has been democratized, and if you can’t afford a work of art, it’s not uncommon to find a number of reproductions of ancient or contemporary works of art in the home.
Nevertheless, acquiring a work of contemporary art remains an unaffordable luxury for many, while others are looking for an original, one-of-a-kind work of art to suit their tastes. Finding the right work of art can be a daunting task.
Dwayne Iserief et Julien Surdeau
LOUIS Custom Art Workshop, combining art and high-end personalization, offers you the solution. This new online concept-store, created by Dwayne Iserief and Julien Surdeau, offers customizable works by artists based on an innovative concept, reconciling the authenticity of the artist’s work and the reflection of the customer’s personality. On the artbylouis website, a dozen artists from a wide variety of pop backgrounds invite you to dive into their world, offering customizable canvases in a varied and evolving price range.
The art lover first chooses the artist and his or her world from among those on offer. Then, they are invited to personalize their canvas to reflect their own personality and taste. Depending on the universe, it’s possible to send a snapshot, choose tones and motifs, or select themes or icons. The Artist then creates the canvas according to the customer’s choices, and signs it in his studio within one to six weeks, depending on the work.
LOUIS Custom Art Workshop artists can personalize their canvases, but they retain their style and integrity in their artistic approach to the unique and the original.
The selection of artists on offer includes some with strong creations and diverse inspirations, such as Marie B. Cros, a conceptual artist with exhibitions in Milan and New York. A master of digital, graphic and plastic image technologies, as well as more traditional techniques, the artist offers two types of customization.
Marie B. Cros Stripes Portraits à gauche
His Stripes Portraits, an interweaving of sharp vertical lines and contrasting faces with fine pencilled features of personalities such as Mick Jagger or Barack Obama, seduce with their simple yet contemporary design, ideal for an industrial or New York loft-style interior. A simple photo of you can become an original stripes portrait from 695€.
With Memories 2.0, Marie immortalizes our precious moments through an assemblage of images and perceptions. Superimposing atmospheric or scenic photography and drawn portraits of the actors in the memory, her modern diptychs are a highly original way of forever imprinting a memory and its associated emotions from 900€.
A gauche Amylee Fashion art
Amylee, who needs no introduction, brings her Fashion Art to customization, offering us a choice of glam rock models such as Twiggy or Kate Moss to sublimate with a choice of colors and patterns starting at 350€. Inspired by the world of fashion and Haute-Couture, these colorful, poetic fashion tableaux are sure to brighten up even the most bohemian interiors.
Julien Surdeau, co-creator of the Workshop, is also a skilled artist, and offers us two customization concepts. This eclectic artist is a self-taught jack-of-all-trades, equally adept at writing and drawing.
Julien Surdeau Louis Portrait Pop
His flashy, ultra-trendy Louis Portrait Pop embodies a colorful, laid-back lifestyle. Using photos as a starting point, the artist paints your portraits by hand in a multitude of vibrant colors in the grand tradition of Pop Art, starting at 115€.
Julien Sureau Celebrity Vintage Kraft sur la gauche
These Celebrity Vintage Kraft pieces reveal his more creative, underground side. The fruit of research into deconstruction, this retro collection plays on contrasts and evokes a blend of industrial and recycled. The celebrity of our choice (Beth Ditto, Marilyn Monroe…) is immersed in a rock, industrial and vintage universe in a deconstructed mixed-technique canvas from 165€.
Clyn Face on Vinyl
Céline Lhuillier, better known as Clyn, a young artist-designer, invites us to customize a singular work of art on an unusual medium. Her Face On Vinyls give us the opportunity to plaster the face of our choice onto this famous black LP, now a collector’s item. Each portrait comes to life through the dripping technique and is hand-painted by the artist herself, starting at 95€.
Peggy Devillard Retro Portrait en haut au milieu
Peggy Devillard, an artist of retro and poetic inspiration, will turn your home into the perfect pin-up or Mad Men interior with her Retro Portraits. Drawing her inspiration from a past full of authenticity and tenderness, the artist personalizes her canvases with your memories, which she exploits and transforms into superb creations using a mixed technique combining paint, collage and writing. Your memories of the past become wonderful journeys down memory lane, starting at 290€.
Karin Claessens, a Belgian artist with a sensual, feminine universe, will turn your home into a timeless universe of femininity, elegance and sensuality with her So Feminine Color Design collection, featuring feminine silhouettes in a multitude of colors. From €320, simply choose the color that most closely matches your interior to enjoy the sensual, enveloping curves of these works.
Graphic 60’s Portraits by the Broise-Okuuchi duo will give your home a touch of designer American pop imagery. Your portrait is integrated into an ultra-graphic universe of popular references, making you the hero of a western or comic book, depending on your personality, starting at €560. Created by four hands, these unexpected collisions of comics, poster fragments and photographs will surprise your guests and turn you into a contemporary superhero.
Pop-Up Store éphémère à la Galerie Art Smile Quai du Louvre
For those who’d still like to see a sample of these creations, an ephemeral Pop-Up store is open in Paris until the end of the year, in the basement of the Galerie Art for Smile on the Quai du Louvre. Julien Sureau has created unique T-shirts for all Art Fashionistas, which can be ordered on site.
Now you don’t have to think that art isn’t for you. With LOUIS Custom Art Workshop, you’ll have no reason to miss out on the work of art of your life, the one that suits you and will give your home that little personal touch. And with the festive season just around the corner, if you’re looking for an original gift, don’t hesitate any longer…
LOUIS Custom Art Workshop 11 rue du Moulin des Prés 75013 Paris
Galerie Art for Smile 28 Quai du Louvre 75001 PARIS Open daily from 11am to 7pm (except Mondays) until December 31, 2010.
www.artbylouis.com
Marie-Odile Radom
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
