Joëlle Acoulon

Joëlle Acoulon



About The Artist


I’ve always been fascinated by colours and interested in painting. Ever since I discovered abstract, primitive and oriental art when I was a teenager, during visits to museums, and thanks to courses organised by a teacher outside the classroom, this attraction has been constantly reinforced.

However, my studies in literature (3rd cycle) and my professional life led me to write for a long time. But, at the same time, I remained captivated by everything that frees itself from words to arouse emotion, the graphic arts and contemporary dance in particular.

As an adult, I’ve always had friends who were artists, choreographers, photographers, amateurs and collectors. Ive interviewed a number of them.

I’ve also published a portfolio called “Outre-toiles”, consisting of texts inspired by the works of a painter friend and their reproductions. I wrote and published a book of interviews with the choreographer Jean Gaudin, Les équilibres du vertige.

As president of a non-profit gallery, I helped to organise exhibitions and curated one of them. From 2009 to 2018, still as part of an association, I organised the “Goûters de l’art”, a biennial exhibition held in the barns of the hamlet where I live. Unfortunately, the pandemic and the lack of volunteers put an end to this experience.

But until March 2011, apart from a few disappointing attempts, I wasn’t practising. Computers, which have been part of my world for nearly forty years, and the discovery of a fractal generator ‘unlocked’ me. Since then, designing fractals has been the first stage in my creations, inspired by the colours of nature, whether wild or deeply marked by man. I first try to ‘erase’ their iterative aspect, to stay on the edge between symmetry, repetition and chaos. Duplicated, sometimes modified, placed on textures, photos or painting backgrounds, they combine to form a mille-feuille of images, modified until the result suits me.

My ambition, through my work which is based exclusively on the evocative power of shapes and colours, is to open the doors of the imagination and emotions, without using words. For me, it’s a question of “giving to see” in the words of Éluard, and not of explaining or indicating what should be seen.

That’s why I don’t try to guide anyone in their reading or interpretation by titling my creations or offering an accompanying text. The encounter between the work and the viewer then becomes a real exchange, a fusion of colour, atmosphere, experience and sensitivity.