Tristan Mendrisse |
Born in Aix en Provence in 1989, Tristen Mendrisse was raised in a family of artists. Influenced by his father, a painter and his grandfather a sculpture, he soon discovered his artistic skills in art and music.
Growing up in the heart of Paris’s Quartier Latin and thanks to his parent’s education and his personal curiosity, he was able to discover his passion for the cinema’s most important classics along with French, English and American music.
As a child, Tristen observed his father carefully catalog an impressive collection of his cinema and comic favorites. This passion and transmission of culture helped him organize all the images of the stories he remembers. Passionate about cartoons and comics, at age 17 Tristen had a revelation for painting with the secret desire to create on canvas the images and scenes surrounding his favorites characters.
In a choreography perfectly orchestrated, he infuses his work with all the various personalities of his heroes (Spiderman, Batman, The Joker, Steve McQueen, Ray Charles, etc.). These personalities, stories and talents speak to an entire generation with an eye for detail and strictly respecting each character’s mask or musical instrument. His several trips to the U.S. and unusual meetings awoke and developed his open-mindedness. He likes to travel alone and has discovered for himself other cultures. His trip in New York in 2011 crucially influenced his style as he absorbed POP ART and graphic culture.
His meeting with Joann Sfar, considered one of the most important artists of the new wave of French-Belgian comics, was a another milestone in his development. From this point he will find himself in elegant multi media compositions, sometimes fancy, infused with multicolor inks for a final touch.
Tristen Mendrisse prefers large formats where he can express his overflowing imagination. Like every artist, he has planted few personal secrets within each work, the aim is always surprising with harmonious imagination.