Originally from Marseille, Françoise Nielly grew up in the South of France before moving to Paris. After a successful first career as an illustrator and advertising photographer, she decided to take a radical turn and devote herself to painting, redefining the art of portraiture.

Nielly shapes the human face with brutal energy, using her knife as a creative instrument, leaving expressive scars on the canvas. The bursts of life that emerge from her paintings are the result of a deep engagement with the medium, a veritable hand-to-hand encounter with paint.

Color, propelled like a projectile, lends each brushstroke an almost musical intensity, vibrating like a sonorous note. Flecks of paint become musical touches, dissonant and noisy like life itself. Yet within the space of the painting, these discordant elements harmonize to create a unique timbre that lends a distinctive soul to each face.

Renowned for her remarkable skill with knife and oil paint, Françoise Nielly's portraits command the eye, captivating with the violent expression of life they reveal. Each work presents a different face, but each repetition offers a new perspective, exposing the intense force of the human condition.