Faustine Badrichani
Faustine Badrichani is a French artist based in New York. Her work focuses on the female body and is an exploration of femininity, showcasing colorful women's silhouettes. Over the past ten years, Badrichani—with the exploratory mind characteristic of self-taught artists—has developed an extensive artistic practice, from oil paintings to sculpture (direct plaster), and focusing on works on paper and acrylic paintings in recent years.
Faustine works from life and invites models to pose in her New York studio. “For me, painting women is a play between what is universal and what is intimate, and this exploration is endless.” The female body has always been a central figure in her practice, and she has developed different series of works around this theme, creating her own graphic universe and showcasing a unique use of the color blue throughout her work.
Faustine Badrichani is represented in France by Esther et Paul gallery. In June 2021, she had a solo show in Paris named “D’abord la Mer.” Her work can be seen in group shows in New York with various galleries and curators (Insight Art Space, Untitled Art Space, Brooklyn Collective) as well as on multiple exclusive and curated online platforms (Artsy, Saatchi, and ArtinRes).
Artist Statement
I am interested in showing female intimacy, how it looks and feels. Under a female gaze, I feature empowered women who exist for and by themselves, away from any form of fetishization. In my practice, the body is not just an external shield or shell—it is inherent to female identity, and painting it is a way of revealing the very essence of femininity.
My body of work ranges from graphic representations of the multiple facets of female identity to a more narrative representation of women, whether in the intimacy of their home or escaping from their daily whereabouts. They could be anywhere at any given moment, mysterious beings somehow suspended in place and time.
From a formal perspective, my work plays around with negative space and a reduced color palette to form contrasting silhouettes. Shapes create lines guiding the viewer into the essence of women. This endless exploration of femininity connects the universal and the intimate: my characters don’t have distinct features or identifiable faces in an effort to showcase women as a universal entity, an essence of womanhood. Conversely, their nudity reveals their intimacy. Those women are every woman, each of them unique and universal.
www.faustinebadrichani.com
Can you describe the core themes and emotions you explore in your current body of work?
I want to be the painter of female intimacy and paint how it looks and feels. Under a female gaze, I feature empowered women who exist for and by themselves, away from any form of fetishization. In my practice, the body is not just an external shield or shell—it is inherent to female identity, and painting it is a way of revealing the very essence of femininity.
How does your creative process unfold from concept to completion?
My body of work ranges from graphic representations of the multiple facets of female identity to a more narrative representation of women, whether in the intimacy of their home or escaping from their daily whereabouts. I usually start a series by chance. I make one painting that I have had in me for a while, and then it leads to another one and another one until I have a series, and therefore a concept. I don’t come up with a concept, I come up with paintings, and, a posteriori, it leads to a concept.
What inspires you most outside of the visual arts, and how does it influence your work?
It’s always hard to pinpoint a specific inspiration; it’s always a sum of things, and I never know what exactly leads to the initial idea. It’s a combination of people I meet, photos I take, conversations I have, places I go to, and books I read. My practice is very much “technique-driven.” Sometimes I want to use oil painting for a few months, then I want to discover mini-printing, and I was doing sculpture for a while. Of course, the theme is always the same, but the series and the concepts aren’t; they’re led by the medium I choose to use.
How do you navigate the balance between personal expression and the commercial aspects of your career?
I have a very relaxed relationship with the commercial aspects of my work: I humbly want to bring beauty to everyone and offer the world a new take on female intimacy, so my work is definitely made to be seen by as many people as possible. Therefore, I am honored whenever a collector wants to buy one of my pieces, and I don’t have a mental hierarchy of collectors. Also, for the same reason, I am happy to put my work out into the world through curated collaborations, such as the ones I did with Ysé Paris or Chantelle.
What message or feeling do you hope viewers take away from experiencing your art?
My work is at the frontier between the intimate and the universal, and because of this, my hope is that it speaks to a lot of women. Even though most of my paintings can be judged as self-portraiture (which is unintentional), my work is a lot about sensations, and for this reason, I hope it resonates with many people. The sensation of being lonely in front of the sea, the sensation of a piece of fabric on the skin, the feeling of being the first one awake in the house, the feeling of the sun on the skin through a glass on a cold winter morning, the feeling of a soft bed, etc.
