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KALI Gallery: Can you tell us about your artistic journey? What initially inspired you to pursue art as a career?
Grégory Sugnaux: My artistic journey has always been rooted in a fascination with images—how they are constructed, consumed, and remembered. Growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s, I was immersed in the burgeoning visual culture of the time, from music videos to advertisements and video games. These influences shaped my perception of images not only as static representations but as dynamic entities that carry emotions, ideologies, and cultural codes.
Initially, my interest in art was sparked by a desire to question the world around me. I wanted to understand the mechanics of how we assign meaning to visuals and how art could subvert those mechanisms. Over time, this curiosity evolved into a commitment to create work that critically engages with the history and the future of image-making. My early years were marked by experimentation, but my studies and curatorial experiences deepened my understanding of art's role as both a personal and societal practice.
also grew up in a small village in Fribourg with more cows than people. Far from museums and artistic spaces, I believe this pushed me to develop a strong curiosity and a desire to create. My connection to nature, which has returned as a significant part of my life now, complements rather than contradicts my contemporary practice. This interplay between the natural and the superficiality of the images I encounter has shaped my perspective and continues to inform my work.
KG: Your work consistently engages with the status of the image and the way it is mediated through exhibition and painting. Could you elaborate on your interest in this dynamic and how it shapes your artistic practice?
GS: The image, for me, is never a neutral entity. It is always mediated—whether through the context of its exhibition, the historical framework it occupies, or the cultural and emotional associations we bring to it. This dynamic fascinates me because it allows images to act as both mirrors and distortions of reality.
Painting, in particular, offers a way to reframe the familiar. By extracting images from their original contexts—whether they are sourced from pop culture, art history, or visual media—I can manipulate their meanings and create tension between what is recognizable and what feels strange or grotesque. Exhibition plays a similar role: it’s not just a space for displaying work but a platform for recontextualizing how we see and engage with images. My curatorial background has taught me to view the act of showing art as an extension of the work itself, shaping the way it is interpreted and experienced.
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KG: You’ve mentioned a desire to move away from the hierarchical values embedded in art history. How do you deconstruct these traditional frameworks, and what alternative systems of representation do you aim to highlight in your work?
GS: Art history often imposes a linear, hierarchical narrative—elevating certain forms, styles, and artists while marginalizing others. My approach aims to disrupt this framework by embracing what has traditionally been considered "low" or peripheral, such as popular culture, comics, or grotesque imagery.
I deconstruct these hierarchies by blending high and low, juxtaposing canonical art references with mass-produced visuals or moments of absurdity. This not only challenges the authority of art historical narratives but also emphasizes the subjective and constructed nature of all representation.
Through my work, I aim to highlight alternative systems of representation that value multiplicity and contradiction. I’m interested in how images can embody both humor and discomfort, beauty and grotesqueness, truth and artifice—all at once. By rejecting a single "truth," I encourage viewers to engage with images in a more fluid and critical way.
KG: Your curatorial practice seems to go hand in hand with your artistic work. How has it informed or influenced your approach to creating art?
GS: Curating has profoundly shaped how I think about context and narrative in my own practice. As a curator, I’ve had to consider how individual works interact with each other and with the space they occupy. This has made me more attuned to the relational aspects of art-making—the idea that no artwork exists in isolation, and that its meaning is constantly shaped by its environment and audience.
This perspective informs my painting process as well. I think of each piece as part of a larger conversation, whether within the context of an exhibition or the broader cultural landscape. My curatorial work has also reinforced my interest in interdisciplinary approaches, encouraging me to draw from a wide range of visual and conceptual sources when creating my own work.
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KG: Your exploration of global visual cultures through diverse media—such as art history, photography, video games, and comics—seems quite vast. What draws you to these specific sources, and how do you incorporate their iconography into your work?
GS: I’m drawn to these sources because they represent different facets of how we experience and construct reality. Video games and comics, for example, offer highly stylized, often exaggerated worlds that blur the line between fiction and reality—much like the grotesque imagery I explore. Photography and art history, on the other hand, provide a record of human experience, filtered through cultural and temporal lenses. In my work, these sources often intersect. A painting might draw on the dramatic lighting of a Renaissance masterpiece while incorporating the hyper-saturated colors of a video game. Or it might juxtapose the emotional rawness of a comic strip with the formality of an art historical reference. By combining these elements, I create a visual language that is at once familiar and disorienting, inviting viewers to question the boundaries between "high" and "low" culture, between authenticity and performance.
KG: Your first solo exhibition "I Haven’t Felt Very Well Since the Late 90s" at KALI Gallery will present a brand-new series of works. What are the intentions of the show, and what will the audience expect?
GS: The exhibition will be titled either "Frozen" or "Toxic Wasn’t Just a Color" (I’m still deciding). Frozen refers to the Madonna song, which resonates with the themes of stasis and emotional suspension in the show. It evokes a sense of being trapped in time, mirroring the nostalgic yet grotesque moments from the early 2000s that I explore. On the other hand, Toxic Wasn’t Just a Color draws from Britney Spears’ iconic song, using it to underscore the pervasive and often overwhelming influence of pop culture on collective memory.
This exhibition is deeply rooted in nostalgia, but it’s not a simple longing for the past. Instead, it’s an exploration of how certain images and moments from the early 2000s—iconic yet often grotesque—continue to shape our collective memory and emotional landscape.
The works in this show reinterpret cultural moments that are both personal and universal: Britney Spears with Walt Disney World shopping bags, Eminem sharing an awkward, forced kiss with a fan. These images are painted with an awareness of their absurdity, but also with a sense of tenderness and melancholy.
The audience can expect a mix of humor, discomfort, and introspection. The show invites them to reflect on their own relationship with these images and the culture of that time, while also questioning how nostalgia itself functions as a way of processing memory and emotion.
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KG: Your art challenges conventional forms of representation and the notion of a single ‘truth’ in visual culture. How do you hope viewers interact with your work, and what role do you see them playing in reshaping these representations?
GS: I hope viewers approach my work with curiosity and a willingness to embrace ambiguity. Rather than presenting a definitive interpretation, I see my work as an invitation to question how images shape our understanding of reality and identity.
Viewers play a crucial role in reshaping these representations. Their personal experiences, emotions, and cultural references interact with the work, creating a dialogue that goes beyond the canvas. I want them to feel both connected to the imagery—recognizing its cultural significance—and unsettled by the ways it has been recontextualized. This duality encourages them to think critically about how meaning is constructed and how they can actively engage with and reshape visual culture.
KG: Looking at the current art world, what challenges do you face as an artist who integrates both historical research and contemporary media? How do you see the future of image-making evolving, particularly with your practice at the intersection of art history and contemporary culture?
GS: One of the main challenges is finding a balance between depth and accessibility. Historical research requires time and rigor, but contemporary audiences often consume images quickly and superficially. My goal is to create work that engages with history while remaining relevant and resonant in today’s cultural context.
The future of image-making, in my view, will be increasingly interdisciplinary. As technology evolves, artists will continue to merge traditional media with digital practices, creating hybrid forms that challenge the boundaries between past and present, high and low culture. My practice, situated at this intersection, seeks to navigate these shifts by emphasizing the enduring power of the image—its ability to evoke emotion, provoke thought, and connect us across time and space.
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