Sylvain Guyot was born in 1976 in Nice (French Riviera). He spent all his childhood
in Provence between his parent’s place in Cagnes-sur-Mer, located not far from the Domaine Renoir, and the countryside house of his mother’s side grand-parents at le Tholonet (Bouchesdu- Rhône), neighbours of Château Noir painted by Paul Cézanne. In the process of his artistic self-education, Sylvain has been continuously exposed to Mediterranean light and colours, as well as to exceptional art places like art museums (Chagall, Matisse, Picasso or Fondation Maeght).
After having studied geography at University of Provence, Sylvain left to South Africa
between 2000 and 2002 to do his PhD. He was then based at University of Zululand in the
subtropical province of KwaZulu-Natal. Fascinated by the pace, the colours and the intense contrasts of this country, echoing an intimate difficult experience, Sylvain has started to paint in August 2001 in an improvised studio in his house of Richards Bay. Trying to overcome some of these daily external and personal injustices, these paintings took immediately the form of colourful abstraction underlining the strength of the South African field. This creation has since then continued in his flats of Grenoble, Alice (in South Africa, during a postdoctoral residence at University of Fort Hare in 2005) Limoges and Bordeaux since August 2017 where he co-founded EXARMAS (Expo d’Art Maison des Suds) with Don Pablo Salinas (Chilean artist) to curate and exhibit geography-orientated works of art.
Artistic options go to colours, acrylics and flax canvas as well as to various techniques
(plating; paper and grass massaging) and tools (ruler, sponge and liquids). Geographer and traveller, Sylvain gives to his paintings a nomad dimension, illustrating the strength and weaknesses of his daily life, inspirited by an aesthetical perspective.
Sylvain is revisiting according to a lyrical perspective the movement and colors used by abstract expressionists.
Since 2012, his projects are about cartography and art on South African, Chilean and Greece.
Recent series are on the world geography of Limoges, Nouvelle Aquitaine and on Montana.
Last creations are dedicated to Greece, where the spirit of the artist belongs to.
Peintures Sylvain Guyot 