THIERRY URBAIN
Born in 1960 in France, Thierry Urbain studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes from 1980 to 1982, under the direction of Claude Viallat, and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne from 1982 to 1985, where he studied with François Méchain and Jacques Bonnaval.
Thierry Urbain’s photographic work explores the relationships between architecture, archaeology, and landscape.
Rather than documenting a sprawling present or an exoticized past, his images construct archetypes that each viewer can inhabit through their own inner cartography. Architecture becomes poetic material, revealed through light, geometry, and line a distilled form that opens space to the imagination.
There is poetry in the sobriety of the places as much as in the images themselves, in their deeply sacred character, in the stillness and peace of an atmosphere heavy with the lifeless presence of a vast theatre of memory. To lose oneself in these hieratic, timeless, and sometimes labyrinthine places is to taste the intoxicating and unsettling feeling of eternity.
His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad, in galleries and institutions committed to contemporary photography and reflections on space and territory. It is also held in several public and private collections.
Based in Paris, Thierry Urbain has in recent years expanded his photographic research to include contemporary architectures and geometric forms.
SELECTED ARTWORKS
PUBLICATION
SOLO SHOWS
1999 Babylone, Gallery Palais Walderdorff, Trier, Germany
1997 Architektur III, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria
1996 Qsar El Saràb, Gallery Pons, Paris, France
1994 Tarazona Foto, Festival International de Saragosse, Spain
1993 Hypogée, galerie Hérold, Brussels, Belgium
1992 “Babylone”, Mois de la Photo, Gallery Pons, Paris, France
1991 House of photography, Festival du Ciel et de l'Espace, Lectoure, France
1991 Gallery Imago Lucis, Porto, Portugal
1991 “Archéologies du désert”, Gallery Pons, Paris, France
1989 Gallery Pons, Paris, France
GROUP SHOWS (selection)
2023 Paris Photo, International Photography Fair, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2023 “A Black & White Journey”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2023 Vestiges imaginaires, monuments chimériques, In Extremis, Strasbourg
2023 “Chair de Temps”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2022 Patio, Gallery Sinople, Paris. Des arbres et des hommes, Ateliers Ouverts, Strasbourg, France
2021 16th Meetings of the Book and Photography, Gallery Nadar, Tourcoing, France
2021 Achronos, Gallery Sinople, Paris, France
2021 Biennale of Tangible Image, Flagship Exhibition, Paris, France
2020 “United”, Bigaignon. Paris, France
2018 “Memories”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2016 Rien ou si peu, tellement tout, Space of Plastic Arts, Saint-Dié, France
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2001 “La part du rêve”, galerie Stepanska, Prague, Czech Republic
2001 Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen. Netherlands.
2001 Journées photographiques de Bienne, Bienne, Switzerland
2001 De Natura Rerum, galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France
1999 Souvenir Utopie, Stadthaus Ulm, Germany
1999 Art Frankfurt 99, Germany
1999 Aipad. Galerie Baudoin Lebon, New York, USA
1998 Kunst Zürich 98, Galerie Markus Richter, Zurich, Switzerland
1998 Internationale Séoul Photo-Triennale, C.A.I.S. gallery, Seoul
1998 Space, Time and Architecture, galerie Markus Richter, Potsdam, Germany
1998 Choix privé, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, France
1997 Chroniques Nomades, Les Greniers à Sel, Honfleur, France
1996 La photographie contemporaine, dix ans d’acquisitions, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1996 Escale du regard, Mois de la Photo, Espace Electra, Paris
1996 Photographie et Mémoire, Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France
1995 Prix Européen de la Photographie, Kulturzentrum Englische Kirche, Bad Homburg, Germany
1995 Foire d'Art Contemporain, galerie Pons, Knokke, Belgium
1995 1re Biennale Internationale de Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
1994 “Escale du regard”, Villa Médicis, Rome, Italy
1994 “Quest for the Moon”, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
1994 Paysages de l'apparence, Mai de la Photographie, Ancien Collège des Jésuites, Reims, France
1993 “Villa(s) 4”, exposition présentée à la Villa Médicis, Rome, puis à la Villa Lemot, Clisson
1993 La photographie française : nouvelles tendances, exposition itinérante, USA et Canada
1993 Acquisitions du Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1993 Photo Santa Fe, Sweeney Convention Center, Santa Fe, USA
1993 Découvertes, collection de la Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Grand Palais, Paris, France
1993 Small is beautiful à la Galerie Paul Kopeikin, Los Angeles, USA
1991 Prix Européen de la Photographie, Künstlerwerkstatt, Berlin, Germany
1991 Sélénographie, Observatoire Astronomique, Strasbourg, France
1991 Panorama des panoramas, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
1990 Fixé pour l'éternité, Espace Van Gogh, Rencontres Internationales d'Arles
1989 Moins Trente, 4e Biennale de la Jeune Photographie en France, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
1988 3e Moi de la Photographie, Strasbourg, France
1987 Vom landschaftsbild zur spurensicherung, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
1985 Image par image, La Serre, Saint-Étienne, France
DISTINCTIONS
1995 First Prize of the 1st Tokyo International Photo-Biennale
1992-1993 Laureate of the French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici
1990 KODAK Award
COLLECTIONS
FNAC, Paris.
MEP, Paris, France
Artotheque of Arles, France.
Artotheque of Grenoble, France.
Deposits and Consignments Fund, Paris
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA.
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo.
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo.
International Center of Photography, New York.