Fabien Novarino

FABIEN NOVARINO  is a French contemporary artist born in Chambéry in 1963. Growing up in the foothills of the Alps, he developed an early passion for drawing, painting and model making. His move to the south of France had a lasting influence on his artistic sensitivity, as Mediterranean light, contrasting landscapes and wide-open spaces strengthened his determination to become an artist.

After studying literature and pursuing an initial professional career, Novarino decided at the age of 27 to devote himself entirely to art. His first oil paintings were exhibited in 1990 at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne at the Grand Palais in Paris. His early work was rooted in figurative painting and influenced by the Provençal School, featuring landscapes, harbors and scenes of everyday life rendered through vivid colors and expressive brushwork.

His visual universe gradually expanded toward more urban subjects. Paris, New York, cinema, automobiles and major popular icons became recurring sources of inspiration, while his paintings adopted an increasingly graphic and contemporary character.

From 2010 onwards, Novarino began incorporating photography into his work, marking a decisive shift toward Neo Pop Art. Photography, painting, collage, drawing, stencils and graffiti-inspired elements now overlap within vibrant compositions drawing on cinema, advertising, comics and popular culture.

Twentieth-century cultural icons play an important role in his imagery. Brigitte Bardot, Steve McQueen, David Bowie, Ayrton Senna and comic-book heroes appear within compositions filled with typography, paint splashes, vintage imagery and vivid bursts of color. Rather than merely reproducing familiar faces, Novarino places them within new visual narratives shaped by nostalgia, urban energy and collective memory.

His practice is built around this collision between recognizable imagery and contemporary visual construction. Black-and-white portraits, vintage posters, classic cars, butterflies, graffiti marks and graphic fragments are layered together to create dense and immediately identifiable compositions.

The theme of vanity also recurs throughout his work, particularly through skull imagery reinterpreted in a colorful Pop aesthetic. Behind the apparent exuberance of entertainment culture lies a subtler reflection on time, memory and the transformation of cultural icons.

More recently, Fabien Novarino has expanded his practice into three-dimensional wall sculptures, using cut metal and acrylic glass assembled across multiple layers. These works translate his fascination with Pop culture, vintage magazines, comics and vanitas imagery into objects with depth, movement and a stronger physical presence.

Blending Pop Art, Neo Pop, photography and urban culture, Fabien Novarino has developed a vibrant and immediately recognizable visual language in which the icons of popular culture become raw material for distinctly contemporary compositions.

Discover Fabien Novarino’s artworks available at Galerie De Medicis, Place des Vosges in Paris, and explore his colorful universe through works combining Neo Pop Art, photography, popular icons, urban culture and mixed media.