Alternately a sculptor and painter, Francky Criquet is a self-taught artist whose creations emerge from pure artistic impulse.

Born to a Martiniquan father and a Norman mother on September 19, 1968, in La Flèche (Sarthe), he hails from a long line of metalworkers and secondhand dealers.

The family environment, which fostered his affection for art objects that surrounded him daily, naturally sparked in him a desire to draw, paint, and sculpt from a very young age. Exploring diverse means of expression with remarkable early talent, he completed his first mural for his primary school in 1978 at the age of only ten. Two years later, he created a second mural for his middle school, winning first prize in the Young Painters’ Competition organized by the city of Le Mans, and his drawings were exhibited at the town hall of La Flèche.

At eighteen, after refining his skills on the family’s restoration site by restoring and touching up engravings and paintings, he frequented numerous antique markets and fairs, where he sold his own finds and offered restoration services for antique paintings.

His spare hours were devoted to writing (poetry, short stories), theater, and his personal artistic pursuits: drawing, painting, and ceramic sculpture. His works were featured in several exhibitions in Nantes.

In 1995, Francky Criquet moved to Andalusia, where he worked in the studio of Julio Fernandez Ceballos Montalban, who became his painting mentor. After a year of training, he relocated to England, where he created over three hundred paintings that would later be sold in the United States.

Returning to France, in Maine-et-Loire at the end of 1996, he became involved in architectural and renovation projects, notably designing a troglodyte space. Meanwhile, he continued to paint and exhibit in major French cities (Paris, Lyon, and Marseille).

If the creative fervor drives him daily, making it an integral part of his life, it is also punctuated by public showings for art lovers and collectors.

Working in a troglodyte studio, which echoes the introspective dimension of his art, the painter crafts a universe populated by chimerical creatures, part animal, part human, connected to mythology and ancient pagan culture (minotaurs, bulls, pegasi, centaurs), set against a backdrop of broad black contours and enhanced with a palette of raw, bold colors.

In his canvases, his liberated brushwork reveals fluidly shaped figures intertwined with one another, as seen in More Paint Than Memories (a diptych with a composition reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s famous Guernica). The titles of his works, often phrases or expressions, are as evocative as they are enigmatic, revealing the artist’s inner journey and the cathartic nature of his art.

Starting in 2003, his gallerists organized exhibitions in Brazil at the French Embassy in Sao Paulo; concurrently in the Netherlands in Megen, and in Italy. The following year, his works were displayed in New York and Miami. From 2005 to 2008, he exhibited regularly in China, notably in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou. In 2010, his works were also visible in Rome, Montefalco, and Brescia (Italy). Then in 2013, the Yves Klein Archives dedicated an exhibition to him, showcasing his ceramics and paintings. Francky Criquet spoke passionately about his art:

“I paint radically. It’s absolute. I paint. Painting does not become and will never be literary. The painter adorns himself with colors as an offering. In its unique ideal, the idea of art is sacred. Thus, in perfect love and perfect pain, as a rigorous artist, I paint. My talent is formal and does not wish to contribute to the legitimate tradition that art studios aim to transmit. I am a pure autodidact, with his tendencies, of course, and sometimes certain influences… But if there are distortions, I owe my art to no heritage, and I proclaim it with victorious dilettantism…

Francky Criquet