Biography

French artist Jean Pierre Nadau, born 1963, draws in pen and ink and obsessively imbues his images with fine details that contain a nearly hieroglyphic aesthetic. Broader compositional elements grapple with the dizzying array of tiny details and characters so that the end result is one of both spontaneity and fragile balance. In his drawings, Nadau allows his fantasy free rein, and spurns all sense of plausibility in elaborating outrageous buildings within which people are seen happily to stroll and congregate. There is much latent humor in Nadau’s imaginings, but the fundamental joke is that we, as viewers, are being coaxed into seeing these cockeyed sites as potentially real. Nadau creates minutely detailed drawings, size sometimes reaching over 30 feet. He works exclusively in black Indian ink an paper or fine canvas. Jean-Pierre Nadau refuses to sign his work.