Frédéric Gracia

Frédéric Gracia (born 1959, in Paris) is a French artist, who is known for his trompe-l'œil murals, often in a hyperrealistic style and often on large exterior surfaces such as water towers and industrial chimneys. He calls himself a peintre-alpiniste (climber-painter) because he uses rope access techniques such as rappelling to create large outdoor murals.

Frédéric Gracia

Early work

After studies in the decorative arts and a short period working as an illustrator in a graphics design studio, Gracia began his career as a painter working for Club Med as a decorator-scenographer.^[1]

In 1986, while travelling in Asia, he painted a fluorescent backdrop for a concert by Chick Corea in Hong Kong.^[1]

In 1990, he worked for Paquet Cruises aboard the Mermoz, providing scenery for the night-time entertainment.^[1]

Large trompe-l'œil works

As a child, he was equally fascinated by mountain climbing; looking for a painter able to work at great heights, Jean-Marie Pierret hired him in 1991 to paint Aquarius, a giant mural on one of the four cooling towers of the Cruas Nuclear Power Plant in Ardèche, France. He did so with the assistance of eight mountain guides.^[1] This led to more commissions. For example, in 1995 he worked with Catherine Feff and the Bouygues company on the inside of the dome of a mosque in Turkmenistan; for this job, scaffolding was used.^[1]

In 2007, directing a team of rappelling painters via walkie-talkie over two months, he decorated the two 52-metre chimneys of the thermo-electric plant at Bagnolet, in the suburbs of Paris, with murals of drops of water 1.1–metres in diameter.^[2][3] In 2009, his services were suggested as an alternative to an as yet incomplete computer-controlled large-scale printer for the projected decoration of all the dams in Valais, Switzerland, with murals 700 metres wide and 250 metres high.^[4]

However, he prefers to work alone, using rope access techniques. He compares the work to spelunking, since the movement is downwards, not upwards as in climbing.^[1]

On commission from various settlements, he has painted water towers ^[5] for example with his brother Pascal at Treffiagat,^[6][7][8] and also wall murals, for example at Fontenay-aux-Roses a sepia-tinted mural of a past street scene based on an archival photograph, "like a wink at the passage of time."^[9]

An example of interior trompe-l'œil work is his decoration of toilet rooms in residences as the command station of a submarine^[10] or a space exploration vehicle.^[11][12]

In 2000, from a field of 22,000 artists representing 51 countries, Gracia was selected as one of five award-winners from France in the Winsor and Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition sponsored by Winsor & Newton and the Prince of Wales. His painting Blue World was included in a worldwide touring exhibition which began at St James's Palace and ended at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.^[1]

Stylistic influences

When he first started painting, Gracia was influenced by the American and Japanese hyperrealist painters, and by René Magritte.^[1][9]

Exhibitions

• Paris Institute of Oceanography
• Exposition Saphir.
• Le Manège, Saint-Germain-en-Laye
• Japan Air Lines, Champs-Élysées, Paris
• Winsor and Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition: World Trade Center, Stockholm; St James's Palace, London; United Nations Headquarters, New York
• Gallery, Orly Airport, Paris
• Salon des artistes français
• Salon d'Igny (guest of honour)
• Galeries Artitude.
• Galerie Paradis
• Paris town halls: 9th, 13th, 3rd arrondissements
• Town Hall, Châtillon
• Éspace Maison Blanche, Châtillon
• Centre Jacques Prévert, Châtillon
• Town Hall, Le Plessis-Robinson (D'Artagnan on permanent display in council chamber)
• Le Moulin Fidel. Robinson
• FNAC Les Halles - Paris
• Salons Vianey. Paris (permanent exhibit)
• Galerie du Château. Pau (64)
• Galerie Leitner. Paris
• Aquarium de Paris - Cinéaqua
• Guest of honour at Château de Ferrière (77)
• Town hall, Tulle (19)
• Guest of honour at 46th Salon d'Arts Plastiques, Châtillon (2007)^[13][14]
• Arts and Sciences in Limousin: Town Hall, Aubusson