Vincent Olinet is a French artist born in Lyon in 1981 who currently lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon in 2005 and gained public recognition in 2009 when he exhibited his work "Pas encore mon histoire" (Not yet my story), a floating fake princess bed, in the Tuileries fountain in Paris for the Fiac.
Olinet's art is characterized by experimentation, subversion, and theatricality. He is interested in a variety of styles, from the "dream factory" of the Californian scene to the baroque and rococo, as well as the Dutch still lifes of the seventeenth century. The artist's installations work by diverting references from art history, but especially from everyday and domestic objects such as beds, brooms, chandeliers, boats, cakes, and toast, which, liberated from their initial functions, are then exploited for their dreamlike potential. Slipping from the realm of the familiar to that of the strange, thereby escaping the categories of genres and utilities, Vincent Olinet's objects simultaneously offer a reflection on space and time: "his volumes oscillate between hyperconstruction and flow, vital profusion and impending death" (Eva Prouteau, "Accommodations," Vincent Olinet, Éditions Dilecta, 2022) in a distortion of scales that disturbs our usual perceptions. Through seemingly naive appearances, Olinet's excessive forms and flamboyant colors aim to involve the viewer's body and transport them into the realm of fairy tales. He is attached to the notion of trompe-l'oeil when he imitates traditional know-how, such as marquetry, tapestry, and pastry, using contemporary poor materials such as silicone, resin, ink, etc., and raw materials such as wood, paper, and fabric. Vincent Olinet reproduces what is commonly considered beautiful in the collective imagination. Olinet's diverse body of work includes huge collapsing cakes (series "Gros gâteau") and brooms made of natural or synthetic hair (series "After the Waves/the Waifs"), which question the notions of appearance and good taste.
He has exhibited at Kunstmuseum Bern, Cité de la céramique de Sèvres, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, UBE Biennale in Japan, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, MAC/VAL, and as part of the Voyage à Nantes.
He also participated in the first winter edition of the Voyage à Nantes from November 24, 2022, to January 1, 2023.
