Christian Gastaldi

Born in the south of France along the Mediterranean, Christian Gastaldi has always considered travel and discovery to be essential fuel for his work. When "art became an absolute necessity” for him in 2005, he continued to travel, moving his studio across the globe to locations including Angola, Azerbaijan, Spain, and Canada.

The potpourri of cultural influences he’s encountered along the way can be immediately glimpsed in his dynamic deconstructed collage pieces, created from materials such as paper bags and discarded posters that he explains “can be found in the streets, having suffered the passing of time, those whose mundane functions do not spontaneously elect them as arty material.”

By incorporating his interests in rhythm and composition in his art, Gastaldi seeks to develop his own graphic language equivalent to a writer’s style. He currently lives and works in Paris.

What intimidates you?

Answer: Speaking about my art! It is a very intimate thing. The fundamental reason for creating, often unknown, reside deep inside of me. It is a self-inquisitive process to get to the reasons, it’s intellectually and emotionally compelling, but abrasive and risky as I expose my inner self.

What is your favorite or least favorite word?

Answer: I love words. I love their musicality. I love the rhythms that the writer can create by ordering them. In my work, I seek to develop the graphic equivalent of what it the style for a writer.

How do you want your work to be remembered?

Answer: I think that if you create, it is to be remembered. Not because of ego or hubris but because life deserved to be offered moments of poetry. Artists produce the most futile yet paradoxically most essential contributions to human society.

What is your most important artist tool, what can’t you live without?

Answer: The material I collect in the streets. I am interested in the papers that can be found in the streets, having suffered the passing of time. Those, whose mundane functions do not spontaneously elect them as arty material. I build my work upon the humanity and the fragility I perceive in them.

Website: https://www.saatchiart.com/christiangastaldi