Cyrille Conan was born in 1973 and grew up in Queens, NY to French immigrants. He is first generation American and is bilingual. He spent summers on his grandparent's farm in Brittany on and off until I was 18. He has dual-citizenship and identifies both as French and an American. This duality is apparent in his artwork. The graphic nature and grit of the work comes from growing up in NYC in the 80s and the love of nature distilled in him from spending summers in Brittany have transformed into this minimal, organic, geometrical street art.
Cyrille has been developing a vocabulary of various mark making, collage and textures to allow for the paintings to generate as honestly and intuitively as possible. Each layer informs and dictates the final composition until he finds a visual balance of form, color and repetition.
He considers his process to be a response to the intersection of two modern phenomena: the destruction of nature, and the growth of technology.
Cyrille graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Hartford Art School before planting his roots in Boston in 1998.
While his primary practice is still painting, he works in a variety of mediums and scales. He’s produced site-specific installations and murals in numerous states as well as local galleries and public spaces in Boston, including The Cyclorama, The MFA/Boston and City Hall. He currently works as a Preparator for the Design Department at the MFA/Boston.
