Jean Claracq (born in 1991 Bayonne, France), lives and works in Paris. In 2017 he received his MFA from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris. In 2018 he won the 2eme prix Antoine Marin and the Prix de peinture Roger Bataille. His first solo museum exhibition took place at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, in 2020. The exhibition at the Sultana Gallery is the artist's first solo exhibition in a gallery.

Jean Claracq's painting could be described as painting from screens, as others once painted from nature. In his smooth canvases - which recall the brilliance of a glossy paper as well as the homogeneous light of the screen - the culture of images is omnipresent. He often references art history and traditional registers. His painting openly displays its relationship with photography, especially since he uses one of its most widespread channels of circulation: Instagram.
Painter of miniatures and icons, Jean Claracq pays attention to images down to the smallest details. His models come from social networks and are part of a gay, marginal or culturally different community but his paintings resonate with a thousand other scholarly references. He plays with the possible reading levels as a virtuoso and depicts with surgical precision our relationship to screens and solitude, in urban environments. Their subjects are solitary, silent and motionless, sitting in front of the computer screen. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Claracq contributes to the dialogue between painting and digital art, one of the key phenomena in contemporary art in recent years.

Recent and past group exhibitions include: Solo Show, Galerie Sultana (2021), Open Space #7 Jean Claracq, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2020) Boys Don’t Cry, Le Houloc, Aubervilliers (2020), J’aime, je n’aime pas, Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig (2020), Collection Agnès B, La FAB, Paris (2020), Umbilicus, Sultana, Paris (2019), "Les fleurs de l’été sont les rêves de l’hiver racontés le matin à la table des anges", Praz-Delavallade, Paris (2019), "Futures of Love", Magasins Généraux, Pantin (2019), « Mais pas du tout, c’est platement figuratif ! Toi tu es spirituelle mon amour! », Jousse Entreprise, Paris, FR (2019), Artagon IV, Heading East, Magasins Généraux, Paris, FR (2018), Felicità 18, Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Paris, FR (2018), 100% Beaux-Arts, Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris, FR (2018).*

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