Nicolas Daubanes

Born in 1983, Nicolas Daubanes graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts de Perpignan (France)with a diploma in fine arts.

His drawings and sculptures are inspired by the prison world and explore how human intelligence adapts and responds to oppressive environments. Diversifying his own experiences of prison, through workshops, artist residencies or teaching opportunities (2008), Nicolas Daubanes is often inspired by urban legends linked to the prison system, almost fantasized realities, which are central in his work. For instance, by using the inmates' methods of making clandestine alcohol in his work The Dream Life, he creates an augmented reality of the prison environment, offering a different perspective from that of sensationalist documentaries, often in collaboration with the inmates themselves. Beyond the subjects of his works, it's also through the medium that the artist intends to suggest an experience of confined space, as in his drawings produced with magnetic steel powder (Prisons / Miradors) for example.

His works is part of private and public collections, notably those of the Frac Occitanie Montpellier, or the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur. He has won several prizes among which are the Yia Prize 2016, the Grand Occitanie Prize for Contemporary Art 2017, the Mezzanine Sud les Abattoirs Prize 2017, the Friends of the Palais de Tokyo Prize, 2018 and the Drawing Now Prize in 2021. In 2019 and 2020, he presented solo exhibitions at the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, the Château d'Oiron and the Palais de Tokyo as well as at the Drawing Lab and the Centre Pompidou Metz in 2022. He has exhibited in numerous institutions such as the Villa Arson, Les Abattoirs (Frac Occitanie Toulouse), the Frac Occitanie Montpellier or the Mrac Sérignan.

He is represented by the Maubert gallery (Paris, France)