Kiki of Paris
Kiki of Paris is the pseudonym for a French photographer and artist born in Paris in 1945.
Biography
Kiki studied humanities and social sciences before turning towards drawing and painting. In Montparnasse, he was introduced by the actor Michel Simon to Henry Miller who advised him to devote himself to photography. He then worked with the ethnologist Robert Jaulin and traveled through Asia, Central Europe, Cuba, Jamaica, and the United States. In the early 1990s he joined the humanistic photography movement, associating with Willy Ronis. Since 2000, Kiki of Paris is a member of the ADAGP.1
Kiki of Paris Committee
The Kiki of Paris Committee was created in 2006, to promote his work and to provide certificates of authenticity.
Notable works
- The melancholy of Kiki of Paris
- The Last Ride
- Polymorphous Structures
- Ulysses
- Adios Queens
- Sacrifice of the Cockerel
- The Messenger
- Desolation Canyon This work assembles a group of three people that the artist photographed in Charleroi and placed in an image of Death Valley.
- Loulou, a French dog
Critical reception
«Demanding and opposed to clichés, your photographic work has the seduction of poetry. By seeking to reveal imaginary , your eye transcends the reality and daily life and leds to the emergence of images of great creativity » – Bertrand Delanoë (Mayor of Paris)[1]
Main exhibitions
- 1999 Telos Institute (Seattle)
- 2001 Nart Gallery (Paris)
- 2002 Tokyo International Forum
- 2002 Atelier Visconti (Paris)
- 2002 Salon des Indépendants (Paris)[2]
- 2004 Hype Gallery Palais de Tokyo (Paris)
- 2004 2009 Galerie ARTEnovance
Publications
- 1984 Bars de nuit à Paris — Night bars in Paris
- 1985 Fractures sociales, l'example de Belleville — Social fractures. The example of Belleville
- 1989 Obliques et perspectives — Obliques and perspectives
- 1999 Structures primaires et polymorphes — Primary and polymorphic structures
- 2001 Kiki of Paris (Telos Institute)