Inès Longevial

This is the first international monograph on the French artist Inès Longevial. Inès Longevial is a French painter based in Paris. She started drawing and painting at a very young age, first showing her work on Instagram, where she had an immediate success in terms of visibility. Since then her career has been growing fast, thanks to the support of the Parisian gallery Ketabi-Bourdet and to solo shows in Paris and New York. Her oil paintings and drawings focus on two main themes: femininity and nature. Bodies, faces, and skin are shaped by light and color, and different palettes reflect different emotions—sometimes soft and sensual, sometimes intense, strong, and violent. The artist approaches her memories in color and gives form to candid and absorbed faces that embody the nostalgia of seasons, sunsets, shades of light, and caresses. Originally from the southwest of France but with family in the Basque Country, she’s been close to Spanish culture; Pedro Almodóvar’s colorful world and Pablo Picasso’s lines rank among her main influences. Through large oil portraits on linen canvas and on paper, the artist follows an intimate injunction: “to make the face speak.” Her face—her faces—have always taken on the appearance of a landscape, sculpted by infinite shades of gleam, carved by valleys, traversed by shadows. The book presents a significant selection of paintings and drawings, and includes pages of her sketchbook, a kind of intimate diary showing her inspiration and her spontaneous approach to painting. It is the first monographic publication on a promising young talent, with great potential.