Danièle Akmen French, b. 1945

Discovering the world of Danièle Akmen is unveiling the extra-ordinary. For Akmen, anything is an excuse for wonders. The artist explores her subjects and reinvents them with a consummate art of ornamentation. The familiar is transformed into treasure, and the common into magic.

Born in 1945 in Monaco, she grew up with a father “a bit lithographer, a bit draftsman and painter” who lived for his passions and had the wonderful flaw, from the point of view of a child, to be curious about everything. Through him, Danièle discovered drawing and color, and she developed a fascination with art, which led her to study at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice and then in Limoges.

"I cannot recall the point when I started to paint. It was more that I continued 'patrolling' through colour, when most children come to the age where they stop drawing. Exercising the paintbrush, stitching lace, combing giraffes and tigers, colouring plants and costumes, this seems to me to be an enviable occupation. After having closely examined cats, dogs and fish, I wanted to relate the common point of black and yellow hair of the stripes of tigers with those of bumblebees, compare the bristle hair of zebras and punks. Colour and drawing are inseparable, essential to convey the vision, intention and the outcome one wants to share."

- Danièle Akmen.