RENAUD ALLIRAND was born in 1970, and currently lives and works in Paris. He has exhibited regularly since 1995 under his name and also under the pseudonym of Dip. Besides painting and printmaking, he has collaborated on illustrated artists books, and has received numerous prizes and awards in international print competitions. His work is in both public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. In 2007 he was invited to be the Resident artistat the French institute of Tangier - Tétouan, Morocco.
Artist's Statement:
"Engraving has always fascinated me, but I waited a long time to buy a copper plate, 10 years exactly. 10 years of painting, with inks from China, 10 years of work without a word, and one day, I wanted, urgently needed to express differently, did I want to write, but how?
I wanted words intimate but transitory. Engraving then seemed the single means, to write with the precision of the truest words of the dry point. Thanks to these "writings" , the method of engraving was opened, and my painting moved into printmaking, with horizontal lines and verticals, not of colors, an architecture with the research of light. Always imaginary landscapes, the light of north, a window, a passage, lines which cross such engravings, seeks tensions which maintain upright, constructions and rebuildings. To write a word or to trace a line, the idea remains the same one: to release itself. Downstroke and upstroke or straightnesses, part of oneself is engraved." - Renaud Allirand, June 19, 2006
