This interview was initially published by ARTALPHA. I'll tell you part one and part two. This time we will bring you the second part.

View Part One

ArtAlpha: Your practice has undergone a clear shift—from the human body, desire, and psychological anxiety to water, rivers, ecology, and immersive experience. Why did this change take place? Was it a thematic shift, or did it reflect a change in your understanding of the nature of painting?

I don't see it as a rupture. Rather, I feel that I've shifted the subject without ever abandoning the same underlying questions. In the beginning, I looked at the landscape through the human body. Today, I tend to look at the body through the landscape.

Water, rivers and natural phenomena have become ways of speaking about the same concerns: our relationship with life, time, memory and our place in the world. This change reflects above all an evolution in my understanding of painting. I'm less interested in representing a subject than in the way painting can make an experience tangible.

I also believe that I will probably return to the human figure at some point. For me, these are not separate periods that replace one another, but different stages of the same ongoing investigation.

Clément Denis, Untitled (Green Valley III), 145.0 × 200.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2022

Detail of Untitled (Green Valley III)

ArtAlpha: You once mentioned that you were influenced by Georg Baselitz in 2012. What does German Expressionism mean to you? How do you transform this tradition of spirituality, the body, and emotional intensity into your own painterly language?

Georg Baselitz, however, was a very important discovery for me. What fascinated me was not only the expressive power of his painting, but the extraordinary freedom with which he approached it. There is a remarkable balance in his work between technical mastery and the willingness to break away from that mastery whenever necessary.

That freedom deeply influenced me. It made me realise that painting could engage with other media and, more importantly, with contemporary society itself, rather than remaining confined within the boundaries of painting alone.

Today, I'm less interested in extending the tradition of Expressionism than in speaking about the present. I want painting to resonate with the social, political and ecological questions of our time.

In some of our projects, we also collaborate with artists whose practices can sometimes resemble what is commonly associated with Art Brut. But we never approach them as patients. We work with them simply as fellow artists, as peers.

Clément Denis, Untitled (Green Valley), 145.0 × 200.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2018

Clément Denis, The Road Ahead, 100.0 × 150.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2016

ArtAlpha: Your painting has long emphasized bodily involvement—from your experiments around 2011 with using the body as a tool, to later working directly with your palms and fingers in contact with pigment. For you, how do hand movements, speed, and traces become a painterly language? How does this “corporeality” differ from brushwork in the traditional sense?

I've been incorporating my body into the act of painting for a long time. At one point, I even spat ink directly onto the surface before moving on to using my fingers.

Working with my fingers completely transformed my relationship with painting. At first, it was simply a matter of efficiency and speed. Suddenly, I had five brushes working simultaneously, each capable of creating different rhythms.

But more importantly, the fingers eliminate distance.

A brush always creates a separation between the painter and the material. Your fingers allow you to feel the pressure, the density and the resistance of the pigment directly. There is an immediate physical dialogue with the paint itself.

That intimacy creates a far more organic language. The gestures no longer merely produce an image; they become part of what the painting is about.

Clément Denis, Forest, 100.0 × 150.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2016

Detail of Forest

ArtAlpha: In recent years, you have increasingly worked on paper rather than traditional canvas, combining acrylic, pastel, pencil, and other materials. Why has paper become an important medium for you at this stage? How do the qualities of paper affect your creative process?

Paper possesses a fragility that deeply interests me.

It resists, but differently from canvas. It absorbs pigments in another way, welcomes layering, accidents, erasures and unexpected transformations.

That constant tension between fragility and resistance corresponds perfectly to what I am looking for today. It forces me to paint differently, and the material itself directly influences the gestures I make.

Clément Denis, My Future, 70.0 × 50.0 cm, acrylic on paper, 2016

Detail of My Future

ArtAlpha: Nature is often present in your work. In recent years, you have also created works about endangered bird species. Nature is no longer merely landscape, but becomes a vehicle for memory, disappearance, and ecological crisis. How do you understand the relationship between painting and “climatic irreversibility”? Can art become a way of preserving the memory of nature?

Above all, I try to remain sincere about what genuinely moves me in the world.

Today it is impossible to ignore environmental change. It is part of our reality, and it seems natural to me that painting should bear witness to it.

I strongly believe that images still possess a unique power. Since prehistoric times, they have transmitted stories, beliefs and knowledge. They accompany civilizations and preserve their memory.

When painting is combined with immersive installations, sound or multisensory experiences, it can reach people differently. It doesn't provide answers, but it can awaken emotions, plant ideas and encourage new ways of seeing.

There is another thought that is very important to me.

When we discover ancient civilizations today, it is often through their paintings, sculptures or objects that we begin to understand who they were.

In the same way, I believe we have a responsibility to produce the images that will bear witness to our own time for future generations.

Clément Denis, Legacy Bird 1, 19.0 × 24.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026

Clément Denis, Legacy Bird 2, 19.0 × 24.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026

ArtAlpha: How do philosophical and poetic traditions influence your visual language?

What I can say is that philosophical, religious, literary and poetic traditions profoundly nourish my work.

I'm fascinated by archetypes, myths and founding narratives because they offer ways of understanding human beings across time.

When I paint contemporary migrants while borrowing compositions from religious painting, or when I bring together ancient iconography and contemporary issues, I'm trying to show that certain human questions transcend historical periods.

Painting has become, for me, a way of reflecting on the meaning of life just as much as a way of creating images.

Clément Denis, The Guardian, 96.0 × 146.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2014

Clément Denis, Me and Sunset, 170.0 × 190.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2015

 

ArtAlpha: You have described yourself as “an abstract painter with a capacity for figuration,” and your landscapes are not representations of real places, but spaces regenerated through color, line, and perception. How do you understand the relationship between figuration and abstraction? In your work, does landscape come from observation of reality, or from inner spiritual experience?

For me, the two are inseparable.

I often begin with very concrete observations. I take countless photographs and make numerous drawings that later feed into my paintings.

But I'm never interested in reproducing a place faithfully. What I want to capture is the sensation that remains after experiencing it.

Conversely, an abstract painting can often emerge simply by enlarging a tiny fragment of reality. A small detail can become completely abstract when viewed at another scale.

I enjoy this constant back-and-forth.

Gerhard Richter demonstrated brilliantly that abstraction and figuration are not opposing territories but two languages that continuously nourish one another.

That dialogue is essential to me because it keeps painting alive. It creates a productive tension that continually pushes the work forward.

Clément Denis, Family and Sunset, 180.0 × 130.0 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2014

ArtAlpha: How do the works in this exhibition differ from your previous works?

I would say they represent continuity rather than rupture.

They bring together several years of research into landscape, memory and sensory experience while opening new directions for future work.

Perhaps this exhibition makes more visible the thread that connects my earliest paintings with my most recent ones.

The same concerns remain—the body, perception, the living world and memory—but they now take on a more immersive and open form. My ambition is no longer simply to present paintings, but to create experiences that continue to resonate with visitors long after they leave the exhibition.

About the Artist

Clément Denis (b. 1991)

Clément Denis, born in 1991 in Saumur, France, lives and works in Vétheuil, a city on the outskirts of Paris. He once resided in Monet's former home, where he was deeply influenced by the region's Impressionist legacy. Clément Denis graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris (ENSBA), where he studied under François Boisrond (b.1959), a prominent French artist and a leading figure in the Figuration Libre movement. Clément Denis delves into the complexities of communication and the human condition in his unique way, with a particular focus on anthropological themes and the expression of consciousness through the body. Issues such as identity and environment drive him to constantly experiment with new artistic approaches, incorporating mediums such as paper weaving, mosaics, sculpture, and printmaking.

In recent years, his work has transitioned from richly colored oil and acrylic paintings to paper-based creations characterized by fluid lines and vibrant hues. His works have been widely exhibited in solo and group shows across Europe, America, and Asia. In 2019, Clément Denis was recognized by Manifesto magazine as one of the seven most promising emerging artists.

What Remains: REBECCA BERNAU, CLEMENT DENIS