“I’m attracted to discomfort. When something starts working, my impulse is: Well, okay, let’s put it upside down, make it different. I’ve done this for twenty years.” Claire Tabouret

Claire Tabouret is a figurative painter from France, who lives and works in Los Angeles. She is known for her layered, impressionistic portraits, painted with full, loose brushstrokes. Her hydrous palette is suspended somewhere in the ether between the synthetic hues of makeup and subdued tones of the earth. Tabouret’s paintings are often based on of vintage photographs, magazine images and history books, blending historical snapshots with childhood memories and imaginative intuition: “I do no thinking, these are my hands.” In the painting process, the artist seems to be constantly shifting between an imaginary world and the reality of daily life. Claire Tabouret is interested in exploring the transformative power of painting: “There is often a visible transformation of the figures in my work, whether it’s through costume, makeup, artificial colors, etc., but I also want the viewer to be confronted by the feeling of change. I’m interested in the point when one thing is turning into another — I want to suspend that moment in time.” Tabouret’s work has been acquired by major collections including the Columbus Museum of Art, ICA Miami, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Pinault Collection, Collection Lambert, and FRAC Auvergne, among others. She lives and works in Los Angeles. French, born in 1981.

Claire Tabouret, The Siblings