Julian Farade Presents New Work on Velvet Alongside Soft Sculptures at Galerie Derouillon

On view this fall at Galerie Derouillon in Paris was Julian Farade’s “Aesthetics of violence.” The exhibition was the artist’s second with the gallery, featuring new paintings on velvet along with soft sculptures. A bright red crocodile bent into an uncanny shape, legs elevated and splayed out. Three sticks came together in the shape of a make-believe shelter, as if created by a child playing in the forest. Dark, abstract paintings featured gestures in pink, crimson, blue, and white, hinting at a figure just out of sight. This fall, Farade’s work was also on view at Château La Coste, in “Une Chambre à Soi.” Farade is known, as well, for his collaborations with brands like Hermès and Balenciaga.

Whitewall visited with Farade at Galerie Derouillon during his show to hear more about his everyday practice, and learned why sometimes constraints create more freedom in the end.

WHITEWALL: Can you describe your daily routine in the studio? How do you balance discipline with creative spontaneity and your process?

JULIAN FARADE: I start with drawings. I will do sketches to play with my hand and to find spontaneity like a runner, in a way. So it’s like I go to my hill and run every day. That’s how I work. 

“I will do sketches to play with my hand and to find spontaneity like a runner, in a way,”

Julian Farade

WW: How has your creative process changed in the years of practice doing that same activity every day?

JF: I would say what’s changed is my reaction to color. I learn more about myself and how the colors that are in my field of emotion—like a yellow with a blue in a different time zone or time space, and a yellow and a red. That’s how I know more about myself and how I navigate through color and emotion now. That’s what changed. 

WW: Your work often incorporates a diverse range of materials. What draws you to experiment with different mediums, and how do they influence the narrative of your pieces?

JF: I react to the emotion. I adapt my will to the medium. I want more reactivity from the medium. I will do a sculpture if I need to grab something, or if I need to bend I will do wood. If I want something more abstract, I will do painting.

Discovering New Ways of Creating

WW: In your latest body of work you’re working on velvet. Why did you start on that fabric and that specific fabric? 

JF: What I like with the velvet is the light and the depth of it. I like to play with depth and to play with light, which goes very well with painting’s colors. 

WW: Are there any pivotal moments that have significantly shifted your approach to creating art? 

JF: Exhibitions. Every time I have a show, it’s like a reset to a new way of creating. When I am done with a show I can process it better, and I can do something else after. Each show gets me deeper into my practice. Every show is a restart, in a way. 

WW: Where do you find your inspiration? 

JF: I find inspiration in my everyday life and my gut reaction to things. It’s very visceral the way I’m working. My work is a translation of feelings. A good painting will lead me to the studio very quickly. 

“I find inspiration in my everyday life and my gut reaction to things,”

Julian Farade

Finding New Shape in Collaboration

WW: You’ve collaborated with many luxury brands in the past. How do you approach these partnerships creatively speaking and how do they differ from your independent artistic work? 

JF: Collaboration is a way to tame me, in a way. I use it as a way to find new shape. I will adapt myself to a given brief. I never give my full self, but I give a part of me that can become malleable. For example, for Balenciaga I did flowers, and I’d never done flowers before. And then I brought those flowers after with me. It’s like a reverse of work, weirdly. 

I also like that people get a taste of you without knowing it’s you, which I love. 

WW: How do you maintain your artistic identity while working with others?

JF: The more you’re in a cage, the more you’re free, in a way. The more structure I have, the more I want to break them. If you put me in a cage, I become creative, because I try to find a way to break the cage. It’s good for me.