Grégory Sugnaux CH, b. 1989
Grégory Sugnaux lives and works in Fribourg. His work is generally concerned with the status of the image through the mediation of exhibition and painting. In extracting the familiar image from its existing pictorial codes, he rejects hierarchical values in art history and tries to turn attention to the representation of alternative systems in image-making.
With curation alongside his artistic practice, Sugnaux investigates the conditions of the exhibition in his varying approaches. From 2016 to 2020, he was co-curator of the project space WallRiss in Fribourg and since 2017 co-curator of Backslash Festival in Zürich. For several years, Grégory Sugnaux has been exploring global visual cultures and their iconography, which he processes in thematic series. His research is based on archives of images and materials that include media such as art historical book illustration, photography, video, videogames, and comics, which are in constant growth and are each reordered in iconographic cross-sections and lines of development. For example, he recently produced a series of images dedicated to the pictorial form of the grotesque, in which he processed the famous Mannerist entrance portal of the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, placing it in line with more recent phenomena of the grotesque. His present project, entitled Shape-shifting: Transfiguring Art History, focus on the visual discourse of art history and thus pursue the legacy of Aby Warburg’s iconology. For this purpose, the Bibliotheca Hertziana’s library and phototheque offer an extraordinarily rich fund. Grégory Sugnaux’s artistic methods of image analysis through image processing thus offer productive interfaces with the research foci of art history department.
Lives and works in Fribourg (CH).
EDUCATION
2017 | HKB, Master of Visual Arts, Bern
2013 | ECAV, Bachelor Visual Arts, Geneva
2012 | ENSAV, La Cambre, Brussels
scolarships and grants
2025 Laureate, La Sarrazine, artist residency
2024 Finalist Swiss Art Awards, Basel
2023 Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome
2022-23 Istituto Svizzero, Rome
2022 Atelier du Musée des Beaux-arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds
2021 Display, Projecktraum 13, Zürich
2020 Finalist Swiss Art Award, Basel
2019-20 Paris, Cité internationale des arts, atelier de la ville de Fribourg
2016 Berlin, atelier de l'état de Fribourg
2015 Winner, Kiefer Hablitzel Award
Solo exhibitions
2025
Toxic Wasn't Just a Song, KALI Gallery, Lucerne
2024
Swiss Art Awards, Basel
Griserie, Museum Murten
Post Scriptum, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome
2023
Lost Flock, Post ex, Rome
Mental Mask, suns. works, Zürich
Into the Wolf's Mouth, Lateral, Rome
2022
L'été inachevé, sis123, La Chaux-de-Fonds
data romance, Château de Gruyères
2021
Demain s'occupea de demain, La Placette, Lausanne
2020
Obsessive nature, Thundercage, Paris
You talk to me with words and I look at you with feelings, with Pascal Vonlanthen,Swiss Art Awards, Grand-rue 31, Fribourg
heute denken, morgen fertig, Display, Berlin
2019
Définitif, donc provisoire, Fri Art, Fribourg
Plastifun, sic! Raum für Kunst, Lucerne
Once Again, Lokal-int, Bienne
2018
Fatigue c'est la vie, KunsthalleMarcel Duchamp, Cully
2017
Palais de confettis, FAQ, Basel
2016
Les Campagnes hallucinées Les Villes tentaculaires, WallRiss, Fribourg
Fade to Grey, Lokal-Int, BielOut of Sight, Zwanzigquadratmeter (ZQM), Berlin
2015
Interrobang, Hangar9, GenevaWe Suisse, Palais Granvelle, Besançon
Vanishing Speciosity, Galerie3000, Bern
Group exhibitions (selection)
2025
Humanilia, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Yverdon-les-Bains
2024
tempo d'oro, KALI Gallery, Lucerne
Hot Shots!, EAC Les Halles, Porrentruy
2022
La réforme de Pooky, Friart Kunsthalle Fribourg
Le monde clair des bienheureux.s.e.x. s, Quartier Général, La Chaux-de-Fonds
Gazed and confused, Chapter II, Last Tango, Zürich
Spring equinox, Suns Works, ZürichA moment of being, Bâle
2021
Môtiers art en plein airRupture, MAHF, Fribourg
Of course, Ecurie du bois d'Ely x Smallville
2020
Palazzina#08, Palazzina, Basel
A Table For 50, Galerie PCP, ParisYour Friends and Neighbors, HIGH ART, Paris
2019
Wunderkammer, LausanneUntil the next downpour, Spazio In Situ, Rome
2017
Fribi White Card, Fri Art, FribourgJeunes Pousses, Centre d'Art Contemporain d'Yverdon-les-bains
Constructions Sensibles, Kunstverein, Konstanz
Sechsunddreissigminus, Kunsthalle Luzern
2016
Cantonale Berne Jura, Kunsthalle Berne
What Makes the Moon the Moon, Topic, Genève
Bromance & Sisterhood, Stadtgalerie, BerneThe Paradise between Us, MaxxxProjectSpace, Sierre
2015
Unter 30. Junge Schweizer Kunst XI. Kiefer-Hablitzel preis 2015, Kunsthaus, Glarus
Kiefer-Hablitzel, Swiss Art Award, Basel
Paris art Fair, Paris
2014
Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei, Mitz,Freiburg (DE)
Show, Showed, Shown, Manoir de Martigny
2013
Holes in the Walls, Early Works 1948-2013, Fri Art, Fribourg
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Toxic Wasn't Just a Song
Grégory Sugnaux 28 Mar - 9 May 2025Britney painting melancholia (BPM) Teenage Angst and cursed Images are two terms that were also haunting like ghosts and now claim their role and position in current art production. They...Read more -
tempo d'oro
14 Dec 2024 - 18 Jan 2025KALI Gallery is pleased to present ‘tempo d'oro’ , a group exhibition with 13 artists, which offers a comprehensive insight into the current contemporary art scene. Barbara Davi David Weishaar...Read more
