Hollis Taggart is pleased to announce its representation of Thomas Agrinier (Lyon, France; b. 1976), who joins the gallery’s growing contemporary program. A self-taught artist, Agrinier blends the visual vocabularies of figuration and abstraction to create expressive and enigmatic paintings that compel and excite the eye. Regardless of subject or inspiration, Agrinier’s work is filtered through his sense of childhood joy, enthusiasm, and play, inviting the viewer to connect with their own experiences of optimism and freedom. A selection of Agrinier’s works were included in Hollis Taggart’s 2021 group presentation, A Way of Feeling, and his painting L’élu du mercato (The chosen one of the mercato) (2021) is currently featured in Game On!,which remains on view at the gallery’s Southport, Connecticut location through October 30, 2021. A solo exhibition of the artist’s paintings is being planned for 2023.

“The response to Thomas’s works in our prior and current exhibitions has been incredible. There is something special that you can’t quite name about the energy and emotion that his paintings exude, but we’ve seen the way that they immediately draw and engage viewers. The gallery team and I are very much looking forward to deepening our relationship with Thomas and increasing visibility and awareness of his singular style in the U.S.,” said Paul Efstathiou, Director of Contemporary Art at Hollis Taggart.

Agrinier began his career as a musician, working as a composer and performing as a guitarist. His sense of rhythm, tone, and aural composition have informed his approach to painting, which he taught himself over the course of a decade by experimenting with layering color, form, and found imagery. His works are inspired by an incredible range of references, from graphic novels and cartoons to cinema and news media, and to the aesthetics and experience of kitsch objects.

In instances, his paintings function as composites of his inspirations, with exaggerated figures positioned within abstracted and uncertain scenarios. This scene setting stems from his active interest in films, and Agrinier often uses movie stills as source material. At the same time, his engagement with both figuration and abstraction result in paintings that elude clear understanding, with characters poised to act or engage with a situation that is just beyond the viewer’s grasp. The open-ended quality of these scenes captivates audiences and invites individual imagination to fill in the experience.

Agrinier also focuses on solitary figures, examining the emotional expressions of his protagonists. With the painting featured in Game On!, Agrinier explores the evocations of fierce competition and the emotional and physical exertion inherent to sport. His soccer players appear mid-action, with bright colors and fluid lines blurring the boundaries between body and background. In other paintings, he investigates how sensations of joy, sadness, and contemplation can emanate from the surface plane. In this way, he approaches his work as a visual manifestation of the vast spectrum of human experience, inspiring both familiar and unexpected reactions. It is perhaps this quality of his work that so actively compels audiences—it’s incredible ability to draw out feeling and the power of lived experience.

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Thomas Agrinier lives and works in Paris. His solo exhibitions include those at Mark Hachem, Paris; Galerie Estace, Paris; and Galerie Dukan, Paris. He has also been included in exhibitions at at BLAM Projects, Los Angeles; the Ostrale Biennial for Contemporary Art Dresden; Scope Basel with Galerie Estace; and at Art Paris Art Fair with Mark Hachem.

For more information, please contact Alina Sumajin, PAVE Communications & Consulting, at alina@paveconsult.com or +1 646-369-2050.