bio
Portraits of Silence and Presence
Born in Paris in 1993, Arsène Welkin lives and works in Arles. After studying philosophy at Université Paris‑Sorbonne, the self-taught painter and musician turned his attention to the pictorial realm, mounting his first solo exhibition in Arles in 2020.
Driven by a vision of softness, silence and symbolism, his work takes shape in still lifes and portraits where familiar figures unite with imagined beings, nurtured by mythological, literary and spiritual references.
Rendered in pastel and oil, his compositions emerge from a contemplative discipline: a quest for purity and presence in an age of haste. His surfaces are calm, his colours measured, his scenes hushed yet charged. He selects motifs, plants, animals, symbolic objects that hover between dream and reality.
His residencies, including at the Riad Jardin Secret in Marrakech, have allowed him to expand this universe of quiet introspection and light. His work has since been exhibited at prestigious fairs such as ART PARIS and Future Fair New York, and is held in private collections including the Fondation Thalie in Brussels and the Tesoro Collection in Amsterdam.
Through his art, Welkin invites the viewer into a space of stillness, a breath, a pause, an awakening to the subtle architecture of being.
