Leo Novoro

Leo Novoro lives and works in Fontainebleau, between the forest and the studio. His earliest dated canvas, The Queen of Spades, is from 1996; the catalogue now runs to 87 works — oils on canvas, glass mosaics on wood, epoxy resins and commissioned portraits.

His subject never changes: civilisation as a game. The titles say as much — Wanted, Macrohard, The Gold Card, Bolshevism, Russian Rules. Playing cards, banknotes, crowns, logos: the trappings of power are painted as characters, with all the gravity of a court portrait.

Glass and light

From 2011, glass mosaic on wood became a second language. In it Leo Novoro returns to the lesson of the Neo-Impressionists: colour is no longer laid down but divided, and it is the viewer’s eye that puts it back together. The pieces, cut and glued one by one, make the picture a living surface that responds to the time of day and to your own movement.

Colour under resin

In 2017 he took the search for depth further still: the oil is covered with an epoxy resin that traps the light. There are only three such pieces — Love, The Strongest Link and Clear-Sighted — in which painting becomes an object.

The Kings of France

Since 2019 he has been painting the sovereigns of France, from Childeric I to Napoleon III. Sixty-four portraits without crowns, in which the depth of the classical portrait meets the paint handling of today. The collection can be seen at the studio, by appointment.

Commissioned portraits

A commissioned portrait is an exercise in meeting someone. Leo Novoro brings to it the same method as to his other canvases: layer upon layer, colours in harmony, and no copying of photographs. The portraits to date — Paul McCartney, Bolloré, Vladimir Putin, Sébastien Loeb, Jean Paul Gaultier, Jean-Paul Belmondo — run from public figures to family.

The book “ARTISTE”

Alongside the painting he has published ARTISTE, a book in which he sets out his relationship with painting and with looking. Its cover is the canvas Subpersonalities (2005), the manifesto of an artist who thinks of himself as a crowd.

Sources & method

This biography is drawn 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 as published by the artist. The readings of the works are the site editors’ own.

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