San Francisco Downhill

About Pierre Riollet :

Pierre Riollet was born on April 25th, 1963 and graduated from the Auguste Renoir School of Art, Paris in 1983. After 20 years spent in Advertising, first as a Graphic Artist and finally as an Artistic Director, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to painting in 2003.

The artwork of the illustrator, Norman Rockwell, led him take an interest in the American Realist Movement. The artists, Edward Hopper and in particular, Robert Cottingham, influenced him at this time. Following a trip to the United States in 1987, he began a body of large scale works, featuring American facades and their projected shadows. Two years later, in 1989, he presented these paintings in his first one man exhibition. Parallel to his facade paintings, he worked on other subjects, still lives and landscapes, with various techniques (watercolor, ink-wash and drawings) and published a book illustrating a favourite fetish of his: "flipflops"! This exhibition presents a retrospective of recent and past works dealing with "townscapes", in oil and in acrylic. This subject matter has been dear to him for almost two decades now. Having worked at length on "facades", he now embraces "contre jour" always seduced by the light and the deep contrasts. This is the vital essence of his artistic research today.

Beyond the symbolism of the tunnel, it is both the graphic and the esthetic effect which interest me in this theme. Whatever the subject is, the framework magnifies the light and sends it back to us, the viewer, blinding in its intensity. I like the contrast of the dark frame, steering the eye towards a brilliant and abstract opening, letting the imagination rush in and on out of the picture space. The idea of passage and transition are inevitably expressed here.

Solo & Group Exhibitions

2017
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE)
Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE) - Solo Exhibition
ART 3F Art Fair Lyon, Metz, Mulhouse, Paris, Toulouse, Rennes, Nantes, Bruxelles, Luxembourg
JGO Bastille - Paris - Chatou
Galerie Platini - Lyon - Annecy
Galerie Perrier - Avignon
Art design Gallery - Guetary
Gordon Bennet Gallery - Beaulieu sur Mer

2016
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE)
Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE) - Solo Exhibition
ART 3F Art Fair Lyon, Metz, Mulhouse, Paris Rennes, Nantes
JGO Bastille - Paris - Chatou
Galerie Sillage - Paimpol
Galerie du Chateau - Estaimbourg ( BE) Solo Exhibition
Galerie Jal - Les portes en ré
Galerie de Medicis - Place des vosges - Paris

2015
44° Salon des Arts de Vaucresson
Grand Marché de l'Art de Chatou
Expo 4Art, Paris
Chateau Conti, L'Isle Adam
Art Contemporain et Céramique, Paris
44° Salon des Arts de Vaucresson
Grand Marché de l'Art de Chatou
Aquarella
Art3f Paris
Aiguillage galerie
Exposition, Les Extraits
Espace Marc Steckar
Galerie Monsieur

2013
Galerie de Medicis
jpbART Gallery
Galerie Nicolas LAHAYE
ART 89
La Galerie du Chateau - Estaimbourg – (BE)

2012
ART GENT - Flander Expo Gent - Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE)
Modus Gallery (Paris) - Solo Exhibition
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE)

2011
Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE) - Solo Exhibition
Linéart 2011 - Gent Annual Art Fair - Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE)
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Art City Gallery - Paris
Barclay’s Club gallery – Metropole center - Monaco
Modus Gallery (Paris) - Solo Exhibition

2010
Linéart 2010 - Gent Annual Art Fair - Frans Vanhove Art Gallery - Leuven - (BE)
Chic Art Fair - Cité de la Mode et du Design – Art City Gallery - Paris
AAF London - Affordable Art Fair - Aranapoveda Galeria- Madrid (SP)
AAF Paris - Affordable Art Fair - Art City Gallery, Paris
Modus Gallery (Paris) - Solo Exhibition
Lux Metropolis - Collective Exhibition - Art City Gallery - Paris
Passages - Solo Exhibition - Art City Gallery - Paris
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Art City Gallery, Paris

2009
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Aiguillage Gallery - Paris
AAF Paris - Affordable Art Fair - Aiguillage Gallery - Paris
AAF London - Affordable Art Fair - Aranapoveda Galeria- Madrid
Ciudad a contraluz - Solo Exhibition - Aranapoveda Galeria - Madrid
Arte Santander – Annual Art fair - Aranapoveda Galeria - Madrid
Collectif artistes- Group Exhibition - Art City Gallery

2008
AAF Brussels - Affordable Art Fair - Aiguillage Gallery
AAF Paris - Affordable Art Fair - Aiguillage Gallery
Retrospective P. - Solo exhibition - BP headquarter Paris

2007
Art pluriel - Annual Art Exhibition
Aquarella - Watercolor Art Fair

2006
Art pluriel - Annual Art Exhibition
Aquarella - Watercolor Art Fair

2005
Art pluriel - Annual Art Exhibition
Chatou Painters Association – 48th Annual Art Exhibition
Aquarella - Watercolor Art Fair
Art78 - Annual Art Exhibition
Art’uel – 10 th Annual Art Fair

2004
Art pluriel - Annual Art Exhibition
Chatou Painters Association - 47th Annual Art Exhibition
Aquarella - Watercolor Art Fair
Art78 - Annual Art Exhibition
Brittany landscape - Solo Watercolor Exhibition
 
2003
Contemporary Annual Art Fair J.G.O. Chatou - Ile des impressionnistes
Chatou Painters Association - 46th Annual Art Exhibition
Montesson 25th Annual Art Exhibition
Art’uel - 8th Annual Art Fair
Aquarella - Annual Watercolor Art Fair
Contemporary Art Fair J.G.O. Paris

2002
Chatou Painters Association - 45th Annual Art Exhibition
Montesson 24th Annual Art Exhibition
Carrière-sur-Seine - Annual Art Exhibition
Art’uel  7th. Annual Art Fair
Aquarella - Annual Watercolor Art Fair
Rencontre des Arts - Annual Art Exhibition
J.G.O. Contemporary Art Fair - Chatou - Ile des impressionnistes
Summer Exhibition - Royal Academy of Art London

2001
Salon des salons – Versailles’s Annual Art Exhibition
Aquarella - Annual Watercolor Art Fair
Solo exhibition - Aiguillage Gallery
Art’uel  6th. Annual Art Fair
Seine en scène - Solo watercolor exhibition - La gare d’eau

2000
Chaville – 23rd Annual Art Exhibition
Aquarella - Annual Watercolor Art Fair
Art’uel  5th. Annual Art Fair

1999
Seine en scène - Solo watercolor exhibition - La Capitainerie
Aquarella - Annual Watercolor Art Fair
Art’uel  4th. Annual Art Fair

1998
Aquarella - Annual Watercolor Art Fair
Art’uel  3rd Annual Art Fair

1989
Facade lights & shadows