Artist sitting beside an abstract painting on a canvas, wearing a white t-shirt and dark apron, hands covered in paint. Sunlight casts shadows on the wall.

Iris Arnaud

French American artist Iris J. Arnaud navigates the duality of the emotional and physical state; much like she negotiates the interpersonal dynamics and 
socio-complexities of the old world and the new.
From growing-up in France as a Parisian student at ESAG Penninghen and Academie Charpentier, to become a professional artist in the US, Arnaud proposes an ideal combination of heritage and modernity.
Influenced by abstract expressionism movement (and especially artists like Oskar Kokoschka and Zao Wou Ki) and by Rothko's tactful deployment of color fields, Arnaud's use of tempestuous compositions with clashing colors creates an emotional intensity.  
The relationship between artist and paint, paint and canvas, and painted canvas to the viewers eye culminates in an intricate dance between Arnaud's emotive strokes and the responses they provoke. Captured at this intersection is a dichotomous effervescence that straddles melancholy and optimism, romanticism and isolation, despair and enlightenment.
Iris J. Arnaud's paintings are ethereal and elegant. She modernizes and feminizes the language of abstraction and action. She currently lives and works in Paris, France.
Two women standing in front of an abstract painting, holding drinks, smiling.

EDUCATION

2004 - Académie Charpentier, Paris, France. 
Graduated with full marks and honors from the jury.
2001 - ESAG Penninghen, Paris, France.
2000 - Notre Dame de Sion, Baccalauréat ES, option Arts Plastiques, Paris, France. 

SOLO SHOWS

2023 - Axis Mundi, Atelier Lardeur, Paris, France.
2022 - Synesthesia, Kollectif Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
2021 - States Of Mind, Amoroso Gallery, Venice Beach, Los Angeles, USA. 

GROUP SHOWS

2012 - Ex Voto, Ô Château - Les Caves du Louvre, Paris, France. 
2011 - Cosmos, Claris Garnier Atelier, Paris, France.
2011 - Gimmick, Spot Gallery, Paris, France.
2010 - Black, Spot Gallery, Paris, France. 
2008 - Street, Bowery Gallery, New York, USA.
2007 - Don’t Call It Street Art, Collective Gallery 173-171, New York, USA. 

PRESS

October 2023 - l'Opinion, Paris, written by Donatienne Partiot.
September 2023 - Mens'Up, Paris, written by Carole Lars Huyvenaar.
October 2022 - BFA, Images Matter, Los Angeles, images from River Callaway. 
December 2007 - The Artistic Life, New York, written by Gretchen Worsley. 
December 2007 - French Morning, New York, written by Marie Camille Descamps. 

In the artist’s studio

Les mouvements de l’artiste sur la toile résonnent comme l’écho des derviches tourneurs de son invité Laurent Allaire. A la croisée des chemins entre rêve et réalité, calligraphie, danse, poésie et action painting, les toiles d’Iris Arnaud, influencée par Zao Wou Ki, Rothko, Chagall ou Frida Khalo, sont le lieu de rencontre d’univers divers, parfois complexes, mais toujours féériques.