Rafaëlle Labourgade

Rafaëlle Labourgade is a French painter trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence, whose nomadic life — spanning France, Italy, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Tunisia, Venice — has nourished forty years of artistic exploration. Her work places the human figure at the heart of a distinctive visual language, drawing on a variety of techniques — charcoal, oil, soft pastel, black chalk — in which figures emerge, dissolve and are reconfigured hovering between appearance and disappearance. Her work has been exhibited at the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Casa del Mantegna, and in numerous international galleries across Europe and Africa. In 2026, she presented Between Heartbeats at the Palazzo Contarini Polignac, during the Venice Biennale — a work composed of two monumental triptychs, conceived as a journey from shadow to light. A solo exhibition in Shanghai is planned for 2027.

A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and having attended the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence, Rafaëlle Labourgade is a French painter whose life has been shaped by her encounters. For over forty years, her life and work have taken her from Paris to Italy, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Tunisia, Marseille, and Venice — each place leaving a lasting imprint on her artistic practice and perspective. She now lives in the hinterland of Cannes.

The human figure lies at the heart of her painting, as a space of presence, vulnerability and connection to others and to the world. Working with oil, charcoal, soft pastel or black stone, she explores every format — including those of excess — to give form to a singular pictorial language: figures emerge, dissolve and reconfigure at the threshold between appearance and disappearance. Her work resists fixed narratives to explore states of tension, suspension and fragile connection.

Her work is held in international public and private collections and has been exhibited extensively in galleries and institutions, including the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua, and French cultural institutes across Africa and Europe.

Alongside her studio practice, she has conceived and led numerous public and participatory art projects worldwide, including the museography of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Conakry, the design of artistic environments for Guinea's national and international airports, the founding of an art school in the Africa, and a collaborative mural with the residents of Giudecca in Venice.

In 2026, during the Venice Biennale, she presented Between Heartbeats at Palazzo Contarini Polignac. The exhibition brought together two monumental triptychs — Our Shadows and At Dawn — conceived as a single immersive journey from shadow to light.

A solo exhibition in Shanghai is planned for 2027.