Claire Chesnier

Born in 1986, in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Lives and works in Paris, France.

Claire Chesnier first encountered art through music and writing, which she practiced very early on. She devotes nearly twenty years to classical and contemporary dance, which she sees as a way to be at one with the music. Painting, which she has practiced since the beginning, is the decisive encounter experienced as an extension of the writing gesture and the incarnation of an extended dance gesture. Her commitment to painting is turned towards a physical and poetic relationship with the world, of apprehension of touch, and of the sensitive entanglement of things, of life. For her, "painting is a story of touch, of how to touch and be touched. She arrives where words fail by tactility and rhythm".

Public collections (selection)

Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris,

France

CNAP, Paris, France

FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Musée Paul Dini, Villefranche-sur-Saône, France

agnès b. - La Fab’, Paris, France

Fondation François Schneider, Fondation de France,

Wattwiller, France

MACVAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

Banque de Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Yishu 8 Maison des Arts, Beijing, China

Art Collector, Paris, France

CCNOA Collective Collection, Belgium

Bibliography (selection)

2025 - Claire Chesnier, monograph, text : Maylis de

Kerangal, Pierre Wat, Molly Warnock, Claire Chesnier, Ed.

JBE Books, Paris, France

2023 - Claire Chesnier - Les Jours, Semaine 03.23, dir.

Philippe Piguet, chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon-les-

Bains, France

2020 - Claire Chesnier, Le ciel aussi est un fracas,

text : Karim Ghaddab, Ed. Galerie ETC, Paris, France

Major personal exhibitions

2026

Japan

The wind left in my hand, Ceysson & Bénétière, Tokyo,

2025

Une éclaircie à la verticale, curated by Isabelle Reiher,

Marine Rochard, CCC OD, Tours, France

2024

Un rose, une rosée, un couchant, text : Maylis de

Kerangal, Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris, France

2023

Les Jours, curated by Philippe Piguet, Chapelle de la

Visitation, Centre d’Art de Thonon-les-Bains, France

2021

Par espacements et par apparitions, text : Pierre Wat,

l’Ahah, Paris, France

2020

Le ciel aussi est un fracas, curated by Karim Ghaddab,

Galerie ETC, Paris, France

2019

L’Art dans les chapelles, curated by Eric Suchère,

Chapelle Trinité Castennec Bieuzy, France

2018

Fragments d’une déposition, Espace Commines, Paris,

France

2016

Résonances, Galerie du jour agnès b., Paris, France

2014

L’aire des aurores, commissariat : Léa Bismuth, le Patio,

Paris, France

2013

Résonance, Yishu 8 Maison des Arts, Beijing, China

Major collective exhibitions

2025-2026

Dans le flou, une autre vision de l'art de 1945 à nos jours,

curated by Claire Bernardi, Emilia Philippot Musée de

l’Orangerie, Paris, France, travelling exhibition :

CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain, and CaixaForum, Barcelone,

Spain

2024

Le jour des peintres, curated by Thomas Gausserand &

Thomas Lévy-Lasne, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Les Lois de l’imaginaire, curated by Laure Forlay, Musée

d’Art et d’Archéologie - FRAC Auvergne, Aurillac, France

2023

Le Toucher du monde, curated by Sylvie Carlier, Laure

Forlay, Jean-Charles Vergne, Musée Paul Dini,

Villefranche-sur-Saône, France

Beautés, curated by Jean-Charles Vergne, FRAC

Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Dialogue avec les Collections du Musée Guimet, curated

by Sophie Makariou & Henry-Claude Cousseau, Musée

Guimet, Paris, France

2020

Regards hors champ et paysages, curated by Jean de

Loisy, Collection agnès b., La Fab’, Paris, France