Born in 1977 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland; lives and works there.
Léopold Rabus is considered one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary figurative art in Switzerland. He studied at the Académie de Meuron in Neuchâtel and at the École d’arts appliqués (EAA-CIFOM) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, before receiving a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Coming from a family of artists, Rabus grew up in a surrealist environment that continues to shape his work today. His practice focuses on large-scale, technically refined oil paintings and installations, often inspired by the rural surroundings of his hometown. On long walks, he photographs abandoned houses, forest clearings, and strange everyday scenes, which he then combines with found images to construct visionary compositions—both disturbing and humorous—where reality and fantasy blend into one another.
His artistic language is marked by grotesquely exaggerated figures—humans and animals with oversized heads and distorted perspectives, reminiscent of the "super deformed" comic style. Yet, these beings feel deeply human and existential. Rabus seeks to depict life in a way that transcends language—emotionally charged, enigmatic, and open to interpretation.
Rabus has received numerous accolades, including the Premio Lissone (2005), the Swiss Art Awards, and the Federal Art Competition of Switzerland (2006). His works have been shown at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Museum zu Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen, the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Neuchâtel, the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Museum Langmatt, and most recently, in a duo exhibition with Till Rabus at HAB Galerie in Nantes (2023). Group exhibitions have brought him to institutions in Perpignan, Istanbul, Hobart (MONA), Luxembourg (Mudam), Athens, Lissone, and Schwaz. His works are held in major public collections in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Greece, Luxembourg, and Australia.