• paintings
• photography
• drawings
• sketchbooks
• texts
• news
• exhibitions
• bio/contact

Birth, Buenos Aires, 1967, works in France, artistic practice & chronology.

Identity & biography

Patrice de Santa Coloma is a Franco-Argentinian painter born in 1967 in Buenos-Aires. After studying engineering in London (KCL), he worked for large groups in the field of computer security. At the age of 30, he left the business world and joined the ENSCI (L'École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle / Les Ateliers) where he obtained a Master of Arts in Interactive Multimedia. Lives and works in Bordeaux.

EARLY interest in photography

First film camera at the age of twelve with a 35mm Fuji range finder camera (Fuji 35SE). Installs a small darkroom processing lab and develops black and white films. Studies computer science and digital electronics at Kings College London (1988-1989) Works in the computer industry for an extensive number of years. Business across Europe (EMEA) and USA .
In 1999 Joins the Master degree at ENSCI les Ateliers in digital design (joint degree with the school of Printing now the School of communication).
Extensive traveling in Asia and South America.

• Explore Patrice de Santa Coloma photographic works

Painting

Follows for many years the classes of Alain Galet in the Ateliers Beaux-Arts (ABA) de la Mairie de Paris (Ateliers de la Glacière).
Intensive nude figure drawing sessions, starts painting with oil paints. Moves to Bordeaux (in 2002) and joins the public courses at the ebabx Follows the history of art lectures of Catherine Pomparat, and the classes of drawing and painting of Jacques Castoriano and Lionel Labeyrie.

His paintings are inspired by different scientific fields: biology and chemistry in particular. They are sometimes articulated in polyptychs, inspired by the fragmented visions of the kaleidoscope or stereoscopy (like in the dyptichs Diplopia series), or even the microscope. The painter invents bridges between disciplines such as experimental music, science fiction, biology or computer science. He draws from it structures, graphic and chromatic rhythms, tries out colorimetric dissonances in a search for demanding harmonies.

His exhibitions are also a pretext to revisit major works of South American literature and plastically redeploy his reading of the books that have marked him. The Yo También Pienso en Usted device is inspired by Ernesto Sábato’s novel El Tunel. Through the installations of Interstices, he translates his impressions of the short story “Casa tomada” by Julio Cortázar. Or in the exhibition Los Enlaces it is again his vision of Tales of love, madness and death by the Uruguayan Horacio Quiroga that he puts in space.

In 2018, a project in collaboration with researchers from the Functional Genomics Center of Bordeaux allows him to follow in the footsteps of Giotto while going further in his own pictorial research. During this work, he experimented with the egg tempera and lead white paint recipes used by the Italian master of the Trecento, of which he will deliver a very personal version of the Saint Francis altarpiece receiving the stigmata.

Studio Practice, CARBET Bègles

Moves to Bordeaux, starts having a painting studio practice. Shares studios in different structures of Bordeaux like the Espace29 or l'Annexe B and becomes co-founder of the Ateliers Carbet with Emmanuel Aragon and the studio of paysagists TçPç. At the Ateliers Carbet they organize exhibitions and invite artists for short research residencies. Les Ateliers Carbet are located in Bègles (near Bordeaux), hosts multidisciplinary artists such as writers, performers, authors and artists (plasticians). List of the members of Carbet.

Carbet promotes art and develops a cultural presence in Bègles with 3 to 5 exhibitions each year See upcoming and past events. They invite from 4 to 5 artists per year for short residencies.See the list of invited artists

The aim of Carbet is to be like the Amazonian name suggests “a shelter for the arts and the public” and help promote art in Bègles (next to Bordeaux) inviting either local artists or international artists. Carbet is also a non profit organization that is autonomous and independent it does not rely on grants or subventions.

Inside Carbet I have a large studio where I can paint large scale format works up to 400 x 500 cm. Roughly 25m2 that I use for different activities such as drawing, painting, watercolor and oil painting. The studio is open for visits upon request.