JOHANNA TORDJMAN

Born in 1990 in the outskirts of Paris, Johanna Tordjman is a self-taught French painter whose work explores memory, identity, and the invisible ties that connect generations. After studying visual communication and working as an art director, she turned to painting at the age of 25 — finding in it a language capable of expressing the fractures and tenderness of the world.

Her first exhibitions took place in Paris in 2016, followed by shows in Art Basel Miami, Hong Kong, and Basel. In 2019, her series Pastèques & Paraboles marked a turning point in her practice, blending fiction, identity, and narrative. The same year, Vanity Fair named her among the “30 under 30 who will change France.”

In 2021, she unveiled 25h01, a body of work inspired by her grandmother’s journey from Algeria to Marseille — intimate portraits that tell stories of exile through symbolic objects. Her latest series, Octobre 61 (2025), pays tribute to the migratory waves that shaped France, through portraits inspired by archival ID photos of men and women who came from Senegal, Cameroon, Peru, Poland, and beyond.

Currently exhibited at the MET, Tordjman also extends her narrative approach to film and video, including collaborations with the Paris Opera. Deeply human and multidisciplinary, her work celebrates faces, stories, and the shared memory that defines us all.