Ophélie Asch (b.1973) is a contemporary French artist born in Poland, the daughter of two ballet dancers and the granddaughter of Léopold Zborowski (1889-1932), who was a Polish poet, writer, and the art dealer of the painters Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Marc Chagall (1887-1985), André Derain (1880-1954), among others. Living in this artistic family, Asch acquired a broad interest in arts and philosophy. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and began to create photographic works in the early 2000s.

Asch received public recognition through both her first solo exhibition at La Galerie des Saint Pères in Paris in 2005, and her photo book, Gens de Pluie, published by the Delpire in the same year. Her photographic works present small, lonely figures exposed to vast, misty land, evoking imaginary landscapes and dreams that challenge the viewers’ perception of the real and the unreal. The poetic expression of her personal experience of life and nature is also implied in the titles of her works, such as Le Destin, Discover Ideas about Rain, and Discover Ideas about Mists.

In recent years, Asch has begun to experiment with acrylic paints, creating a series of abstract paintings. Her work Battle of the Black Birds (2012), in the collection, signifies her unique painterly vocabulary characterized by all-over compositions, monochrome tonality, and rough and earthy textures. Many of her recent paintings evoke the wonder and mystery of the universe; they seem to integrate her artistic practice with her earlier studies in philosophy.

Asch’s works have been exhibited at the Fontana Fortuna Gallery, Amsterdam in 2012, the Pavilion of Arts and Design in Paris in 2015, the Maison Européene de la Photographie in 2017, she is represented by Galerie Hopkins in Paris. Her recent paintings have been regularly presented at Art Basel and are becoming increasingly recognized in the contemporary global art world. 

YQL