“I feel like my break-though paintings were about people getting drunk at the bar and throwing up on each other, kind of .. rowdy. I feel like that was a lot of the experiences I was having. This isn’t even a real subject, this isn’t a real thing, but it was the most fun to make and it became real. It became interesting and it started to feel like I wasn’t copying someone else, but was doing my own thing for once.”
Series 001/11: in conversation with Todd Bienvenu
Todd Bienvenu is a painter, living in Brooklyn, New York. His paintings are a reflection of his biographical universe — they are thick, direct and humorous. Resourcing images from his daily life and occurrences, his paintings feature tattooed rockers, beach bums, urban crashes and mosh pits. It is life in motion.
We discuss the journey of making comic books during his adolescence, to navigating a life as a painter in New York, contending with the materiality of paint and paper in the studio or making a tiny pizza delivery man, reminiscent of his early days riding around Brooklyn. Todd is represented by Almine Rech and Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, in Geneva. He has exhibited work internationally, in Hong Kong, London, New York, Brussels and Switzerland. In 2018, he was recognized and received an award from the American Academy of Art & Letters, for excellence in painting, conferred by Peter Saul.
Interview by Emily Nam