Ludovic Thiriez is a French artist who lives and works in Budapest, Hungary. Trained as a painter, he frequently combines painting with installations and objects, developing an articulated visual language grounded in a poetic and symbolic investigation. In recent years, the core of his research has focused on childhood, understood not merely as a phase of life but as an emotional and mental space in which contrasts, passions, fragilities, and tensions are condensed, reflecting the human condition.
His painting takes the form of an accumulation of experiences, images, and ideas, which the artist organizes in a deliberately simple and chaotic way, through a practice he himself likens to collage. On the canvas, overlays and layers give rise to narratives suspended between reality, fairy tale, and surrealism, where the contrast between abstract brushstrokes and figurative elements creates compositions of strong evocative power. Life thus appears as an oxymoron, a romantic contradiction that finds its balance in a state that is always fragile and unstable.
Nature is a constant presence in his work: trees and plants run through his paintings as elements of connection and transformation, taking on an even more central role after his journey to Brazil, which intensified the use of natural elements as a principle of harmony and visual magic. At the same time, traditional Hungarian embroidery represents a deep trace of his personal experience and a powerful symbol of the transmission of culture and knowledge between generations: motifs and designs once imprinted on fabric become in his work a fragile and poetic bridge between past and present.
Another recurring presence is that of animals—figures that belong to the imagery of fairy tales and childhood but that in many cultures also hold a strong symbolic role as guides and protectors. In Thiriez’s paintings, these presences help construct a narrative universe in which playfulness and unease coexist, shaping a world suspended between innocence and awareness.
His career is marked by important recognitions, including the First Prize at the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2018, and by a steady presence on the international art scene. His works are held in numerous private collections across Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Oceania, confirming the global reach of his practice.
In recent years Thiriez has presented his work in many solo exhibitions in international galleries and institutions, including Playground in Berlin, Onirique and Lost Paradise in Brescia, My Fairy Nature in Vienna, as well as in Paris. At the same time, he has taken part in a wide range of group exhibitions and art fairs in Europe, the United States, and Brazil, showing his work in contexts such as ArtVerona, Art Market Budapest, Berlin, New York, Vienna, and Luxembourg.
His path reflects the evolution of a coherent and recognizable research, capable of intertwining painting, memory, and the collective imagination in a language that combines delicacy with conceptual depth, offering a poetic and layered vision of the human condition.