LIFE BEYOND FIRST CLASS
ARTS & COLLECTIBLES
CONTEMPORARY TWIST
ON A CLASSIC
Artist César Piette seamlessly combines traditional techniques with contemporary practices to create ‘hyperplastic’ images that bridge the gap between art history and toy-like aesthetics, as showcased in his second solo exhibition at Almine Rech in New York featuring his unique depictions of butterflies.
CASEY SMYTH
PHOTOGRAPHY: CÉSAR PIETTE STUDIO & HUGARD & VANOVERSCHELDE PHOTOGRAPHY
Portrait of César Piette, 2021
Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech
Photo: César Piette studio
César Piette, born in 1982 in France, is an artist whose work seamlessly bridges the gap between traditional techniques and contemporary artistic practices. He incorporates elements of figurative painting, drawing inspiration from the rich history of art. Piette’s compositions showcase the mastery of monochromatic layers, perspective, light, composition, and intricately executed shading effects. His distinctive style is brought to life through the utilization of an airbrush, resulting in what he terms ‘hyperplastic’ images that possess a three-dimensional quality.
While Piette’s artistic roots can be traced back to illustration, comics, and video games, he consciously distances himself from the influence of digital imagery. Instead, he conceives of his artistic process as akin to a construction game, where each element is meticulously composed. The artificiality of the object takes center stage in his works, imbuing them with a playful quality that is both captivating and thought-provoking. Piette combines this playful nature with references to art history, creating a harmonious fusion of contemporary toy-like aesthetics with classical subjects such as nudes, birds, and vanitas themes.
Through his unique artistic vision and technical prowess, César Piette crafts a body of work that simultaneously pays homage to the past while pushing the boundaries of traditional representation. His art invites viewers to engage with the playful aspects of his creations and encourages a deeper exploration of the intersection between art, design, photography, and advertising.
French artist César Piette’s second solo exhibition at the prestigious Almine Rech Gallery in New York delves into the perennial subject matter of philosophy, literature, and art: the unassuming butterfly. This creature has long served as a metaphor across civilizations, captivating artists like Katsushika Hokusai, Frida Kahlo, and Damien Hirst, who employed it to symbolize transformation, the ephemeral nature of life, and the ethereal flight of the soul. Piette, however, presents a unique perspective with his paintings, depicting a butterfly unlike any captured by lepidopterists throughout history.
In Piette’s artworks, the butterfly appears slightly slouched on a blade of grass, its open mouth revealing a glimpse of teeth. The artist explores diverse materials and textures, ranging from silver, colorful plastic, marble, ice, gold, and ivory. Against backdrops as varied as a single-colored surface, a hazy landscape, or a starry sky, Piette’s butterflies come to life. Some of his creations seemingly drip as if melting, while others possess a clever touch, featuring a silver head adorned with patches of partially worn blue paint—a painting of a painted thing, an object brand new yet simulating the passage of time.
César Piette, Still life with dead fish, lemon and pan, 2022
Acrylic on board
73 x 62.5 x 4 cm (framed)
28 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 1/2 in (framed)
© César Piette
Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech
Photo: Hugard and Vanoverschelde Photography
César Piette, Mix Materials Butterfly, 2023
Acrylic on board
70 x 60 x 4 cm
27 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 1 1/2 in
© César Piette
Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech
Photo: César Piette studio
Drawing inspiration from artists like Monet, who painted cathedrals and haystacks, and Cézanne, who depicted Mont Sainte-Victoire in Aix-en-Provence near Piette’s own home in the South of France, the artist employs a serial approach in his works. Like his predecessors, Piette focuses on formal elements such as composition, light, shape, and framing, generating multiple effects from a single subject. However, instead of physically relocating his easel or waiting for varying natural light, Piette opts for a different approach. With a simple selection from a drop-down menu, he chooses the desired effects in his digital software. Prior to his career as an artist, Piette worked in illustration, comics, and video games. Dissatisfied with his initial attempts at painting, he consciously decided to create the “worst painting” imaginable while incorporating elements from his previous training. This experimental process ultimately led him to develop his unique present style, which he describes as “color-saturated, illusionistic, without marks or textures, flat, cartoony, non-narrative, and self-referential.” Piette acknowledges that his unconventional style may prove unbearable for many.
The artist’s creative process begins by rendering his subjects in monochrome using 3D software. Subsequently, he converts these digital files into physical objects through airbrushed acrylic paint, meticulously removing any traces of the human hand. The end result is a series of artworks that appear astonishingly realistic, resembling toy-like human or animal figures and landscapes with an otherworldly shine. Piette’s works raise profound questions about the meaning behind creating hyper-realistic renditions of unreal entities. He recognizes that we inhabit a world increasingly dominated by simulation—a phenomenon pervasive in movies and advertisements, often surpassing viewers’ awareness. Within his butterfly paintings, Piette portrays a timeless subject using traditional representational methods, achieved through a purely modern technique that simulates that which he represents.
“Increasingly, we reside in a world of simulation, and my aim is to emulate software that itself attempts to mimic reality,” explains Piette.
Piette has exhibited his works in a solo show at Almine Rech London and participated in group exhibitions held at the gallery’s locations in New York, Paris, Shanghai, and Brussels. Additionally, his art has been featured in group exhibitions at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Meymac in France (2022) and the Museum of Museums in Seattle, Washington (2021). His contributions have garnered recognition in publications such as Juxtapoz Magazine and L’Officiel Art. Furthermore, Piette is scheduled to participate in a group exhibition at Almine Rech London in October, coinciding with the prestigious Frieze art fair.