Clément Bataille is a self-taught painter and ceramist. After studying art history at the École du Louvre and spending a number of years in Berlin, he now lives and works in Paris. Marked by his Catholic upbringing, his paintings combine hallucinatory close-ups, overexposed portraits and moments of intimacy. They stand out against sober, even plain, draped or luminous backgrounds. Taking the metallic backgrounds from icons, his painting cuts off shadow from light, mimicking the original gesture of creation. Religious in form, secular in subject, his works allow him to domesticate personal ex-votos that humorously subvert the gestures traditionally represented: lips are closed, heads concealed, faces turned away. Clément Bataille’s work has already been shown in a number of exhibitions in Paris, Saint-Denis, Marseille, Milan and Berlin. Recently, Clément Bataille illustrated the short story Journal d’ascétisme by Émilien Rouvier, published by Éditions du Chemin de Fer, Paris (2023).