Draft:France Bizot
French visual artist
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France Bizot is a French visual artist born in 1959, working across drawing, oil painting and ceramics. She lives and works in Paris. She has been represented by Galerie Backslash since 2012 and is the recipient of the Derwent Art Prize in 2018.
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Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. Oadulac (talk) 09:06, 23 March 2026 (UTC)
France Bizot | |
|---|---|
![](#/media/File:"Mme_Bovary".jpg) Madame Bovary, drawing on book (pencil on vintage book cover) | |
| Born | France |
| Education | École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris |
| Known for | Drawing, oil painting, ceramics |
| Awards | Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres; Derwent Art Prize (London, 2018) |
| Website | backslashgallery.com |
Biography
Training and early career
France Bizot was born in 1959 in France. After a childhood split between Italy and Australia, she settled in Paris, where she lives and works.[1] She graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in 1978, acquiring a solid technical grounding and a keen sense of visual language.[2]
Career in advertising (1986–2002)
Before devoting herself fully to visual art, France Bizot pursued a career as an art director, then as a creative director, at several international advertising agencies, including Alice, Saatchi & Saatchi and CLM BBDO.[3] This experience sharpened her sense of framing, wordplay and multilayered visual associations. This culture of the image deeply informed her subsequent artistic practice.
Transition to fine art and emergence (2004–2011)
Around the turn of the 2000s, France Bizot began transitioning towards the visual arts. Her first solo exhibitions were held in Parisian galleries and on the Île de Ré from 2004–2005, notably with her series Ublobsession and Épluchures.[1] She subsequently joined Galerie Backslash in Paris, which became the main venue for her artistic work.
International recognition
In 2018, France Bizot received the Derwent Art Prize in London, a British award dedicated to excellence in works on paper.[1] She is also a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.[4] Her work is regularly featured at international art fairs and has been covered by publications including Harper's Bazaar, Arts Magazine, Beaux Arts Magazine, Le Figaro, Connaissance des Arts and Les Inrockuptibles.
Artistic practice
France Bizot is a multidisciplinary visual artist working in drawing, oil painting and ceramics. Her work, often tinged with humour, casts a poetic and critical eye on our hyper-connected contemporary world, its visual codes and digital practices.
Drawing
Drawing forms the fundamental basis of France Bizot's practice. Trained in a tradition of hyperrealist precision, she develops an acutely observed line, which she deploys notably in her Drawings on Books series. In this body of work, she uses book covers — particularly the paperback editions of French publishing — as creative supports, grafting pencil-drawn scenes onto them using Caran d'Ache pencils. The starting point is never the content of the book itself, but its title, which guides the artist's imagination. This approach has been covered by the international specialist press.[3][5]
Oil painting
Oil painting occupies a central place in France Bizot's work, most notably from her PolarOils series presented in 2023. Drawing inspiration from the Polaroid format — often described as the first "selfie camera" — she produces paintings on various supports, including genuine vintage Polaroids. She draws a parallel between the square format of the Polaroid and that of the iPhone, questioning our relationship to the instant image in the age of social media.[6][7]
Ceramics
Ceramics is a medium that France Bizot shapes herself. She uses it as a support for her paintings: forms with near-ideal roundness — spheres, pebbles, lemons, eggs, balloons — host her oil paintings, creating a visual and symbolic continuity between the shape of the support and the depicted motif. This tactile and sculptural dimension broadens her expressive range.
Themes and influences
France Bizot's work revolves around several recurring thematic axes:
- The digital world and social media: from 2011 onwards, she initiated a reflection on the image in the age of Instagram, selfies and timelines, questioning what these formats reveal — and conceal — about our lives.
- Popular culture and the Warholian reference: France Bizot claims the legacy of Andy Warhol, the advertising graphic designer who became an icon of contemporary art, whose Polaroids defined an era much as Instagram defines ours.
Solo exhibitions
| Year | Title | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Natures molles | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2023 | Polaroils | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2021 | Natsukashii | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2019 | Shift and shuffle | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2017 | iCônes | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2014 | Search | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2012 | LINK | Galerie Backslash, Paris |
| 2009 | Epluchures | Galerie François Giraudeau, Paris |
| 2007 | Amiante | Galerie Privée EBC, Paris |
| 2006 | Épluchures | Galerie Privée EBC, Paris / Galerie Contre-Courant, Île de Ré |
| 2004–2005 | Ublobsession | Galeries Works, La Blanchisserie, Contre-Courant |
| 1995 | Peintures | Café de la Jatte, Neuilly-sur-Seine |
Group exhibitions and art fairs
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Drawing Now Art Fair, Carreau du Temple, Paris |
| 2024 | Luxembourg Art Week, Glacis square |
| 2023 | BAD+ Art Fair, Hangar 14, Bordeaux |
| 2022 | Family & Friends 2 / Ten Years After, Backslash, Paris |
| 2019 | Beirut Art Fair, with Backslash & Galerie Paris-Beijing |
| 2018 | Derwent Art Prize, Mall Galleries, London |
| 2017 | Galeristes, Carreau du Temple, Paris |
| 2016 | Art Protects 2016 by Yvon Lambert, Fondation EDF, Paris |
| 2015 | Drawing Now Paris, Carreau du Temple |
| 2014 | Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris |
| 2013 | Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris |
Awards and distinctions
- Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (France)[4]
- Derwent Art Prize — First prize (London, 2018)[1]