David Clerc was born in 1971 in Fribourg, Switzerland. He discovered painting at the Maximilien de Meuron Academy in Neuchâtel and began showcasing his work in 1993. Since then, his art has been exhibited in Switzerland, Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, and England.
In 2002, he was awarded the Jean Tinguely Prize from the Canton of Fribourg, which allowed him to spend a year at the Cité des Arts in Paris. His stay in Paris extended until 2017, after which he lived in Brittany for several years. In 2023, he settled in Sarthe, where he currently lives and works.
Alongside his studio work, Clerc has regularly collaborated with the literary and artistic journal Borborygmes (Paris). He also worked with writer, poet, and painter Jean-Claude Pirotte, particularly on an issue of the Les Amis de l’Ardenne review, titled "Les coups de cœur de Jean-Claude Pirotte."
In 2015, Clerc designed a monumental stained-glass window, integrated into the architecture of the new headquarters of the company Laner SA in Rossens, Switzerland. This silvered glass piece was crafted by the Michel Eltschinger workshop.
"It is in the landscape that I inhabit, the one I am part of, that my work takes root.
I walk, I observe the city and nature. I draw and photograph what I see and what catches my attention, with no other intention than to see and enter a reality. To capture the moment.
I fix the landscape on paper just as it imprints itself in memory. In the studio, a slow pictorial process unfolds, employing different techniques, each acting as a logic of construction for the painting.
Approaching a subject through acrylics and then re-examining it through photography or engraving, for example, allows me to wear down and forget the subject in order to, in a sense, enter the painting, dream the landscape, and attempt to rediscover that initial vision from the realm of the moment.
It is not reality itself that I paint, but everything begins from it."
—David Clerc
Solo exhibitions (selected)
2024 Exposition à la galerie Hofstetter, Fribourg Expostion à la galerie Christine Colon, Liège
2023 Exposition à la galerie Kunstreich, Berne
2021 Exposition à la galerie Hofstetter, Fribourg
2020 Exposition à la galerie Christine Colon avec Reinhardt Voss, Liège 2019 Exposition à la galerie GNG à Paris
2018 Exposition à l’Impasse du Phoenix à Lausanne
2017 Exposition à la galerie Hofstetter à Fribourg
2010 - 2012 - 2013 Expositions à la galerie Vivoequidem à Paris
2013 Exposition à la galerie Le Cube à Estavayer-le-Lac
Group exhibitions (selected)
2021 Galerie Bagnato, Constance
Affordable Artfair Bruxelles, stand galerie Christine Colon, Bruxelles
2020 ArtKarlsruhe, galerie Bagnato, Karlsruhe
2017 Chambres avec Vues, Musée du papier peint, Mézières
2016 Exposition Taille directe, avec Eric Sansonnens, Espace Gâtines, Paris
Exposition Détours d’artistes, Musée Gutemberg, Fribourg
Galerie Bagnato, Konstanz
2015 Exposition Artistes de tendance constructive, Carrespace Vallorbe, avec Aurelie Nemours,
Goddfried Honneger, Marie-Thérèse Vacossin
2014 Exposition Licht und Schatten, Galerie Bagnato, Konstanz 2013 ArtKarlsruhe, stand galerie Bagnato, Karlsruhe
2012 Exposition Schwarz/Weiss, galerie Bagnato, Konstanz 2011 Lille Art Fair, stand galerie VivoEquidem, Lille
2010 Berliner Liste, stand galerie VivoEquidem, Berlin
Glasgow art Fair, stand galerie VivoEquidem, Glasgow
Exposition Murmures, avec Manuel Torres, Rebecca Maeder et Guy Oberson, Galerie de l’Hôtel de Ville, Yverdon
Artistes Fribourgeois Contemporains, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Fribourg
Réalisation intégrée à l’architecture
En 2016, conception et réalisation du vitrail Kaléidoscopique pour les locaux de l’entreprise Laner à Rossens. Vitrail monumental en verres argentés. Réalisation atelier Michel Eltschinger
Bourse
En 2002 lauréat de la bourse Jean Tinguely du Canton de Fribourg offrant un séjour d’un an à la Cité des arts à Paris
Public collections
Canton de Fribourg - Université de la ville de Fribourg - Commune de Villars-sur-Glâne