Jeremie Baldocchi, born in Meaux, France, 1975, is a Figurative Contemporary painter. Baldocchi works mostly in large format using acrylic, ink, and collage on canvas. His practice centres on passion for the human body and its varying form.
In 1991, four years after moving to Paris, and one year after enrolling in the Institut Professionel des Metiers de la Decoration, Baldocchi ended his conventional studies and enrolled in the graphics course. In May 1992, Baldocchi made a seminal decision – in illustration class, he presented an unfinished picture – a figure without a head. Non-representation of the head became a hallmark of Baldocchi’s work – and because of it – a rare interactivity, allowing viewers freedom to interpret the figure and its emotions.
Baldocchi’s works incorporate changes to his own body – knock-knees, acquired in a scooter accident, are mirrored in his figures. Warped bodies are testament to an experience, where he, due to dental surgery, had his jaw wired shut, losing forty pounds in two months and furthering his obsession with distorting the body.
Baldocchi has exhibited in France, Madrid, New York, Venice, Taiwan, Japan, and others. Baldocchi’s work won 1st prize at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, and his work is held in private collections worldwide. Baldocchi has collaborated on three books – one on kitsch, a favourite topic of his, a “picture-of-the-day” photo-diary, and a retrospective of paintings.
For Baldocchi, painting is about extremes – early on, his characters were skinny, but over his career they grew larger, fuller, and more fantastically exaggerated. Omitting the head, viewers are forced to question the emotion of the work. The extensive range in responses inspires his continued practice. He notes that he loves to make people smile – that through the work, viewers remember a lived experience, or envision another’s dreams.
