Exhibition view Caroline Achaintre. Shiftings, Kunstmuseum Ravensburg 2021, French private collection in London, UK, Collection FRAC Auvergne, Courtesy Arcade, London & Brussels and Art : Concept, Paris, Photo by: Wynrich Zlomke 
Major strike, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper, 14 × 10 in. 
Derma D, 2020, ceramic (porcelain), 13 3/8 × 26 3/4 × 3 7/8 in. 
Inhibitor, 2020, hand tufted wool, 104 3/4 × 81 7/8 in. Collection privée/private collection 
Slacks, 2020, ceramic (porcelain), 13 3/4 × 17 3/4 × 14 1/8 in. 
Solaris inverse, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper, 14 × 10 in. 
Louis Q, 2020. Hand tufted wool, 98 3/8 x 78 3/4 in. 
Installation view, Caroline Achaintre, permanente, Capc Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2020. Photo: Arthur Péquin 
Monmec, 2017, enamelled porcelain, 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 x 10 5/8 in. Installation view, Caroline Achaintre, permanente, Capc Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2020. Photo: Arthur Péquin 
Wrigleys, 2020. Ceramic, 25 5/8 x 11 x 2 3/4 in. 
Installation view, Vue Liquide, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, 2020. Photo: Laetizia Debain 
Installation view, Vue Liquide, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, 2020. Photo: Laetizia Debain 
Permanente, Installation view, Fondazione Giuliani, May – October 2020. Photo: Giorgio Benni 
Permanente, Installation view, Fondazione Giuliani, May – October 2020. Photo: Giorgio Benni 
MissTique, 2019. Hand tufted wool, 86 5/8 x 65 3/4 in. 
IGOR, 2019. Hand tufted wool, 102 3/8 x 65 in. 
Installation view, Caroline Achaintre, Permanent Wave, Belvedere 21, 2019. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez; © Belvedere, Wien 
Installation view: Caroline Achaintre, Permanent Wave, Belvedere 21, 2019. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez; © Belvedere, Wien 
Installation view, Caroline Achaintre, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Photo: John McKenzie
Barbette, 2018. Hand tufted wool, 114 1/8 x 86 5/8 in. Exhibition view, Fantômas, Be-Part, Waregem Platform for Contemporary Art and De La Warr Pavilion, Waregem, 2018. Photo: Dirk Pauwels 
Vertigo, 2018. Watercolour and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. 
Installation view, Fantômas, Be-Part, Waregem Platform for Contemporary Art and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, 2018. Photo: Dirk Pauwels 
Severine, 2018. Ceramic, 10 1/4 x 15 3/4 x 14 1/8 in. 
Hocus Locus, 2018. Hand tufted wool, 92 1/2 x 107 1/2 in.
Biography
Born in France in 1969, raised in Germany and based in England, Caroline Achaintre attended the Kunsthochschule in Halle, then the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and the Goldsmiths University of London. The artist is nourished by multiple and radically different cultural references that influence her approach. With her sculptures made of wool, ceramic and with her watercolours, the artist appropriates each space to install her hybrid creatures, transforming the exhibition space into a theater where a dialogue between different characters half-fantastic, half-ghostly can take place. Inspired at once by European carnivals, primitivism, German Expressionism and science fiction, Caroline Achaintre’s work on the one hand evokes the possible coexistence of several characters within a same being as well as the tensions generated by duality. No precise indication is given as to how to approach the work of Achaintre. We see in turn a mask, a garment, an animal… Her works have the particular feature of being difficult to define. At once abstract and figurative, they reveal anthropomorphic forms and indicate a particular interest for animism. The mutation of forms and the plurality of possible interpretations engage the mind and the whim of the viewer. This is the strength of Caroline Achaintre’s work: to question our own capacity to be in the world as individuals defined by complex and multiple identities.
Her work is part of numerous public collections among which: CAPC, Bordeaux/FR; Tate Britain, Londres/UK; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris; FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux, and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims.
Selected solo exhibitions: Kunstmuseum Ravensburg/Centre d’art Pasquart/CH (2021-2022), CAPC, Bordeaux/FR (2020-21), MO.CO., Montpellier/FR (2019); Belvedere 21, Vienna/AU (2019); De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-sea/UK (2018); FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims/FR (2017); BALTIC, Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead/UK (2016); Tate Britain, London/UK (2015); Castello di Rivoli, Turin/IT (2013).
At the gallery
- Tête-à-tête, 2021
- Indus 2, 2019
- Duo Infernal, 2018
Video
- “Permanente”, Capc Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, May 2021
- Conversation with the artist on the exhibition : Fantômas @ De La Warr Pavilion
- Learning with artist – Questions and Answer, De La Warr Pavilion
- Conversation around the exhibition @ BALTIC Bites, Gateshead, UK, 2016
- Skills Academy – Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
- Interview dans le cadre de la résidence au West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, 2018
- Interview ARTISSIMA – Castello di Rivoli Illy Present Future 2013 Prize Exhibition