Cyril Afonso (1990, Pau, FR) is an artist who lives and works between Pau and Paris. His paintings emerge from an excess of perception. The image doesn’t gradually appear, it bursts forth. Too bright, too saturated, almost burning. Like a...
Read MoreCyril Afonso (1990, Pau, FR) is an artist who lives and works between Pau and Paris. His paintings emerge from an excess of perception. The image doesn’t gradually appear, it bursts forth. Too bright, too saturated, almost burning. Like a flash that leaves a lasting imprint on the retina. What matters is not the form, but the intensity of its appearance.
A pivotal moment in his practice occurred during a several-month stay in McLeod Ganj, in northern India, where he observed Tibetan monks painstakingly creating sand mandalas, only to erase them with a single breath. This radical and silent act revealed an essential tension: creating without clinging, inscribing without preserving, a gesture that continues to resonate in his work.
Since then, sand has become a central material in his paintings. It holds the trace while letting it fade. It captures light as much as it scatters it, rendering the image unstable, alive. On this shifting surface, Afonso explores mixed techniques (pastel, oil, acrylic) with sand as a recurring element, a symbol of lands left behind, new beginnings, and the passage of time.
Solo exhibitions include Réalities, 2023, Pau; The Fantastic Sam, 2023, Bordeaux; Chroniques, 2022, Pau; Acrydrama, 2020, Pau. Group exhibitions include Exposició Collectiva, Barcelona, 2025, ES; Bizaaar, 2024, Paris; Décembre à Montreuil, 2023, Paris.
