Leo Novoro

Leo Novoro lives and works in Fontainebleau, between the forest and the studio. His earliest dated canvas, Queen of Spades, is from 1996; the catalogue now holds more than eighty pieces — oils on canvas, glass mosaics on wood, epoxy resins and commissioned portraits.

His subject is constant: civilisation as a game. The titles say as much — Wanted, Macrohard, Visa Gold, Bolshevism, Russian Rules. Playing cards, banknotes, crowns, logos: the attributes of power are painted as characters, with the gravity of a court portrait.

Glass and light

From 2011, glass mosaic on wood became a second language. Leo Novoro finds neo-impressionism there: colour is no longer laid down but fragmented, and the viewer’s eye recomposes it. The tesserae, cut and set one by one, make the panel a living surface, sensitive to the hour and to movement.

Colour under resin

In 2017 he pushed the search for depth further: the oil is covered with an epoxy resin that traps light. Only three pieces — Love, The Strongest Link, Farseeing — in which painting becomes an object.

The Kings of France

Since 2019 he has painted the French sovereigns, from Childeric I to Napoleon III. Sixty-four portraits without crowns or attributes, where the depth of the classical portrait meets the matter of the contemporary one. The collection is shown at the studio, by appointment.

Commissioned portraits

The commissioned portrait is an exercise in encounter. Leo Novoro applies the same method as in the political canvases: accumulation of layers, harmony of colours, no photographic copying. The realised portraits — Paul McCartney, Bolloré, Vladimir Putin, Sébastien Loeb, Jean Paul Gaultier, Jean Paul Belmondo — alternate public and private commissions.

The book “ARTISTE”

Alongside, he publishes ARTISTE, a book setting out his relationship to painting and to looking. The cover reproduces the canvas Subpersonalities (2005), the manifesto of an artist who thinks of himself as a crowd.

Sources & method

This biography is compiled from the artist’s public sources: novoro.art, artiste-artist.com, and his Instagram, Facebook and YouTube accounts. Catalogue data (titles, media, dimensions, years, prices) are those published by the artist. Interpretive texts are written for this site.

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