Biography
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Philippe was born in Bordeaux on June the 22nd, 1952. Married and the father of three children, he broke brutally with his career as a confectioner at the age of 24 to dedicate himself to creating paintings and sculptures. Without artistic training, he invents his art from top to bottom.
He spent the next 8 years alone in his studio, he painted doggedly, seeing only a few artists and close friends. Despite his mystery or perhaps partially because of it, his art began to engage discerning art lovers at home and abroad. A notable and stalwart supporter of Aini's is J. Pierre Roche, director of the gallery EMERGENCES in Bordeaux, who fervently loves his works and has exhibited it many times. Philippe's relationship with J. Pierre Roche contributed to his success in the southwest of France, as did the admiration of Guy Lafargue, manager of the ART CRU (Raw Art) gallery in Auch.
In 1985, his exhibition at the Museum of the Mount Carmel in Libourne was met with an enormous response. This success was renewed the following year with "Art Objet" in Angouleme.
At the end of 1985, Philippe received his first contract with Ceres Franco at "l'œil de Bœuf" gallery in Paris. He went on to exhibit at the "70 polychromatic Sculptures" organized by the Dr. FRAISSEIX at Eymoutiers in August of 1986. In the same year, he was chosen by "Theatre Translatique" manager, Francois MAUGET, to create sets for the Mario Vargas Llosa play "La demoiselle de Tacna". The play was presented on April 27th 1987 at the Andre Malraux center in Bordeaux to great acclaim.
It was later in 1987 that he emigrated to the North of France with his 3 children to join a new companion in Douai, where he lived for some time. His work quickly garnered attention beyond the French border, especially a very controversial fresco which he made in a 11th Century Church at Flines-Lez-Raches near Douai.
Raids in Belgium (Museum of Modern Art in Mons, International Art Fair of Gant in 1991-92), and in Switzerland (International Fair of Contemporary Art in Geneva in May, 1992) did not prevent him from participating actively in various artistic efforts in the capital, including "Salon de mai" (May Show) in 1989 and 1991 and "Figuration critique" in 1987-1990-1991. These Paris shows lead him to exhibit in Moscow, Leningrad and Copenhagen in the early 1990s. His expanding artistic success was further confirmed through "Decouvertes" (Discoveries) at the Grand Palais in February, 1993.
In Evreux, Philippe Aini experimented with a new way of expression: the moulding of human bodies. He made a full set of sculptures (the bathroom) and relief paintings in the Jean-Claude Riedel gallery in Paris.
In 1998, he left Douai for new horizons in Guadeloupe. But he found it difficult to express himself freely there and soon returned to continental France where the Oissel mayor, Thierry Foucaud, welcomed him generously.
He later wrote a stage play around his decorations: "Sein Syphoniquement" , which coincided with the last spring of the century at the Theater Moliere in Bordeaux. After the "Carrousel du Louvre", La Maison Aini opened in Paris and his large scale works found a permanent home. His international presence continued to grow at this time with shows in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and the USA.
2000 saw the birth of ainipainting.com and Aini's interest in the internet and multimedia as new fields of creation. He investigates these with help of Oueb, an original website creator.
Following an exhibition of ceramics the previous year, Aini begins exploring new work in bronze in 2001, notably with the large scale bronze sculpture "Je t'aime". 2002 marks his entrance into the New York art scene, where he was hugely successful at the Outsider Art Fair. It was there that Philippe began his relationship with Gallery 32 Fine Arts.
For a number of months in 2002, Philippe lived and worked in an artist studio in Brooklyn. Isolated from everything, he dedicated himself to the discovery of a new artistic alphabet. Work produced in this period was exhibited with great success at 32 Fine Arts later that year, with a second follow up exhibition in 2003 that included dreamlike paintings and a fabulous fashion show. This installation was an interesting and exciting combination of mannequins and live models in painted, developing costume.
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An exhibitions in 2003 in Miami broke off Aini's New York hermitage and prompted a return to France, where he staged a new show in September of 2003 at the Les Singuliers Gallery entiteld "Evolution echangeante". The New York style continued to evolve, with flock paste, refined to an extreme verticality, accompanying the voluble writing of the painter. His vision is always the same: fantastic, aching, typified by a humanity torn through the centuries, brightened with color. He does not hide the drama of life but widens it, reaching for a universal space beyond.
ART FAIR - Chicago - May 2007 - Inuit and Outsider Art Fair -{same time} Chicago Art Fair
- New York - November 2007 - "Others" first Outsider Art Fair at Pier 92 .