Romain Froquet from 9eme Concept

Romain Froquet, is an artist born in 1982 in Villeurbanne, now lives and works in Paris. Romain began his professional art career with “9ème concept” art collective in 2009. Themes and strategies in Romain’s work are influenced by African and South American tribal art, extending the tradition established by Picasso and Basquiat.

Romain’s work is all about the exuberance of color, complemented by his flawless execution with natural slickness and immediacy thereby capturing the movement of color in intricate asymmetrical structural compositions that parallels complex natural phenomena that we take for granted. The spontaneity of Romain’s work

In 2009, his first exhibition titled “Filigrane” presents compositions that tend more towards abstraction where rare figurative elements are appearing such as the eyes, “mirror of the soul”, or the door which represents his collaborations with other artists over time .Travel has facilitated artistic encounters which have allowed him to rise and feed his inspiration.

“ Everything around me inspire me in my creation. I’m a nature curious, so i like to experiment, search and be listening at all it is constitute my environnement. I’m looking for spontaneity in my work, cause all that my spirit will absorb will be translate by my lines and my colors. My work is a kind of exutory. It let me express artistically all that reflexions inside me. ”

In 2013 he presents the exhibition “Racines”. It is the result of years of work and reflection, nourished by his travels and encounters. His line has matured. It is thinner, more rounded and detailed. The colors are bright and airy. New symbols are incorporated to the composition and form a new language to decipher. The tree symbolism that is present in his work since the beginning, takes on a meaning. The tree is a symbol of life. Each line can be seen as a root that binds and interlocks with other lines.

The notion of temporality is deeply entrenched in his creation; Reference is made to the passing of time sometimes forgotten. It seems to be seeking a buried identity. Our origins and history make us unique individuals. The bonds that unite us form our belonging to the community and humanity. He illustrates our condition through his tracks that are intertwined. Sometimes he erects trees, obvious symbol of all his thoughts.

With “Racines”, Romain Froquet is offering us a return to origins to reactivate our memory and thus return to the very essence of his work.

Since the beginning of 2012, he started to work with the symbol of the tree, which he broke down into its basic form, down to an arabesque and abstracted it and reimagined it sprouting volutes at the heart of the city or in some distant wasteland. This work called «Urban Tree» is the natural evolution of his romance with the line, form and color that is ever present in nature which has strong and deep roots in nature. In every way, the pictorial motif of the tree can then be interpreted as his off the walls signature.

He has been erecting Urban Trees with simplicity of the line rushing in dizzying curves with a variety of colors and sizes, using simple materials – paper, Chinese ink and acrylic paint but making each tree unique.

The Urban Tree has become an obsession for me and is now a recurring motif in my compositions. Until a year ago I worked with the trees on canvas or a platform. Now, the Urban Tree has taken a life of its own, growing, evolving, and spreading its branches and roots beyond the canvas and on to open urban spaces. The tree is a symbol of humanity and vitality. It is a powerful symbol due to its rooting, proliferation and longevity abilities.

The Urban Trees spring up in the most unexpected places – He install them in the urban spaces that seem not to allow any life and promote epidemic rotting. His trees, through him, reclaim life and their rights and stand in colorful exuberance as a testimony to the past life of every dead tree and as a possible resurrection. He Had been planting the Urban Trees around the world since 2012. The trees are an integral part of his travels. He carries them or create them in urban spaces that are rotting, and leaves them as a trail of his passage. His trees can be seen standing brilliantly on the corner of a street in Houston, London, Paris and many other cities.