LAURENT DELECROIX
Born in 1971 in Béthune (France).
Lives and works in Lille (France)
Laurent Delecroix develops an abstract style of painting based on precise protocols, drawn from his background in the pharmaceutical industry. He graduated from ISBA Besançon and then from ÉSÄ Tourcoing/Dunkerque in 2022. His approach explores the conditions under which painting emerges: format, colour, tools, medium, gesture and space. Verging on monochrome, his works seek not so much to represent as to evoke a colourful, fragile and meditative presence. They engage in dialogue with architecture, objects, sound and vegetation, and are often presented as installations. Straddling rigour and letting go, his work shifts painting towards an experience on the threshold of the visible.
Image above: Structure #3_V2, 2022. Fluorescent acrylic paint applied with a brush. Variable dimensions.
Image below: F_40_OR_5_V2 + Araucaria araucana, 2021. Fluorescent acrylic paint applied with a brush. 80 x 60 cm, conifer H: 80 cm
“Laurent Delecroix’s approach reveals a unique awareness of the history of abstraction. The Ikea kitchen unit combined with the painting could easily be linked to a history that encompasses 1920s Russian Constructivism – with painting transcending into the functional object – and Donald Judd’s volumes of the 1960s. The neutrality of the gesture might recall the works of Buren, Mosset, Parmentier and Toroni from 1967. Laurent Delecroix’s works evoke these references without being reduced to them or indulging in a game of quotations, as they differ from them each time. They confront this reduction of painting at work in the various abstract avant-gardes (flat surface, primary colours, forms derived from the format...) with the objects that surround us. The modernist critique of the painting meets the standardisation of objects, which are, in the case of the Ikea kitchen, themselves offshoots of modernist design. The reduction of painting to itself leads to its exterior, to the banality of everyday forms, from the pure to the impure.” – excerpt from Effets de seuil, Romain Mathieu, art historian and art critic
‘Whilst Laurent Delecroix’s work cannot be reduced solely to his use of red paint—which, when mixed, shifts decisively towards what might be considered pink—one cannot ignore what the artist himself states: this shade is his chosen colour, the one that undoubtedly resonates most strongly with the music played by his body of work as a whole. The artist’s Assemblages do indeed appear as a sort of orchestra in which each canvas plays its part. The vibration of the soft, pastel-coloured paint lends the installation an undeniable sense of fragility and grace. In this vein, it is tempting to draw parallels with the work of John McCracken, a Californian artist classified as a minimalist but often contrasted with his minimalist compatriots on the US East Coast.
‘His hybrid works, halfway between painting, relief and sculpture, offer, at first glance, little to captivate the viewer. They adhere to a strict and limited visual vocabulary, yet they are executed with such care that they appear as a concentrated essence of pure colour.’ Excerpt from La Vie en rose, Fabienne Grasser-Fulchéri, director of the Espace de l’art concret.
Image below: exhibition's view, L'Être lieu, Arras, 2026
FRANCE
Laurent Delecroix
25 June - 31 July 2026
Group show - Stand E13
Paris, France
FRANCE
Laurent Delecroix
PAR-DELÀ L'HORIZON
CV
Born in 1971 in Béthune (France).
Lives and works in Lille (France).
EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES / SOLO SHOWS
2026
Comme elle va, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
2025
Juste avant le silence, Galerie Victoire Mercier, Le Touquet, France
2024
Where is Brian ? Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
je_ne_sais_quoi, Centre d’art contemporain d’intérêt national, L’H du siège, Valenciennes, France
2023
Sortie, Artconnexion, Lille, France
Painting metod, Espace Rihour, collection Société Générale, Lille, France
Pièces détachées, Espace Rihour, Crédit du Nord, Lille, France
2019
Sans titre, Biennale des Arts Plastiques, Besançon, France
Sans titre, Festival Seul En Scène, Cressier, Suisse
2018
Sans titre, Festival Seul En Scène, Cressier, Suisse
Sans titre, Esperluète, Pontarlier, France
2017
Sans titre, Biennale d’Art Contemporain, Charquemont, France
Sans titre, Festival Seul En Scène, Servion, Suisse
2016
Sans titre, Festival Seul En Scène, Cressier, Suisse
2015
Sans titre, Festival Seul En Scène, Cressier, Suisse
EXPOSITIONS COLLECTIVES / GROUP SHOWS
2026
L’esprit Monet, Galerie Wagner, Paris, France
Lille Art Up, Galerie Victoire Mercier, Le Touquet, France
2025
Peindre encore, peindre autrement, Galerie des Ursulines, Tourcoing, France
VIisible / Invisible, Galerie Wagner, Paris, France
Art Paris, Galerie Bacqueville, Paris France
Drawing Now (secteur process), Galerie Wagner, Paris France
Sans titre, Galerie Victoire Mercier, Le Touquet, France
2024
Carrément Noir et Blanc, Galerie Wagner, Paris, France
Sans titre, Galerie Victoire Mercier, Le Touquet, France
2023
Prix artistique du musée des Beaux Arts, Tournai, Belgique
ATLAS, curatée par Emmanuelle Indekeu, Face B, Bruxelles, Belgique
2022
Révélation, Espace Rihour, Lille, France
Révélation, Artup, Lille, France
2021
Par-delà l’horizon (duo show), Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
Flash V, Galerie Commune, Tourcoing, France
2020
Mouvements, Galerie Bacqueville, Lille, France
Flash IV, Galerie Commune, Tourcoing, France
Sans titre, Esperluète, Pontarlier, France
2019
Sans titre, Rasson Art Galery, Tournai, Belgique
2018
Sans titre, Rasson Art Galery, Tournai, Belgique
Sans titre, Esperluète, Pontarlier, France
2017
Sans titre, Rasson Art Galery, Tournai, Belgique
PUBLICATIONS / BOOKS
2026
Karim Ghaddab, Il y a un macaque enfermé dans le placard de la cuisine !
Maud de la Forterie, Déplacer la peinture
Claire Colin-Collin, Une rigueur suave
Marc Lasseaux, La Salle blanche (et pourtant rose) de Laurent Delecroix
Céline Leturcq, Comment peindre aujourd’hui ?
Grégory Fenoglio, Playtime ! Les Vacances de Monsieur Delecroix
Dominique Horbez, La Forme et les valeurs
Mélanie Dubois-Morestin « Je suis ton homme »
Élodie Legendre, « Vous prendrez bien un peu plus de thé ? »
Elise Gillon-Bavaro, Un temple pour l’ouie / Ce que tient le rossignol
Véronique Beirnaert-Mary, L’Abbaye Saint-Vaast / À l’écoute des rémanences du passé
2024
Fabienne Grasser Fulchéri, je_ne_sais_quoi / La vie en rose
Romain Mathieu, Where is Brian ? / Effets de seuils
2022
Alexis Trousset, Prix artistique du musée des Beaux Arts de Tournai, Pneuma
Jean-Claude Demeure, Portfolio, Le désespoir du singe face à la peinture
2020
Jocelyne Takahashi, Portfolio, Presque-rien
RÉSIDENCES / RESIDENCIES
2026
Musée des Beaux-Arts, résidence de chantier, Arras, France
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Beaurains, France
2025
L’être lieu, résidence associée à un établissement artistique et culturel (création, diffusion et programmation), Arras, France
2023
Artconnexion, résidence de création, Lille, France
PRIX / AWARDS - BOURSES / GRANTS
2022
Bourse à projet, École Supérieure d’Art Tourcoing/Dunkerque