BIOGRAPHY

After having been the victim of a sports accident, finally, Paul was able to totally devote himself to painting. This break, in his journey, would lead him to a legal career; has had the benefit of allowing him turn to plastic art: what he had always craved.

Having begun to express himself through figurative works, Paul quickly became aware of what time does to our bodies; likewise, our minds. In attempting to hide the figures, covering them then, scraping the canvases, seeing these beings shred, decompose, he realized that matter, elements, suffer the same ravages of time. His canvases express what life has in store for us, with the degradation of matter, whether mineral, vegetable or organic.

Our lives are not smooth: births, death, passions; tears mark them.
Touched personally by an early bereavement, he never stopped bringing this relief to his paintings so that, when finished, they would be a reflection of our lives, of our souls, of the tumult of existence.

Indian ink is found in all his work; it makes it possible to bring out the deep and authentic black that cannot be dissociated from our lives. In the same spirit of authenticity, it seemed important to him to work with natural pigments: walnut stain, water, which are able to impregnate the canvases: important elements similar to the water that makes up the human body. An essential element of life, it also plays a destructive, oxidizing role in nature: does not rust arise from the encounter of metal and water?

However, Paul Alves ardently hopes that the spectator will play an active role in the analysis of what he discovers; that, he can appropriate the painting; that, interpreting it through his gaze, humanity and appeasement can finally emerge.

Expressing himself as an artist, whilst a dedicated man of law, if the dice were to be rolled again, if the question of growth, of choice was asked, Paul will answer you with a quote of Steve Jobs, “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life”