Léonard Félix (b. 1973) lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. He studied at the Pädagogisches Institut and the Allgemeine Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, as well as at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (HES) in Basel. In addition to his artistic practice, he has created scenography for several theatre productions and currently works as an art teacher and illustrator.
Léonard is fascinated by places that are abandoned, desolate, or stripped of their original function. His paintings emerge through a process of drawing, erasing, redrawing, and layering new elements while preserving traces of what came before. The work transforms layer by layer, allowing the reworkings to remain visible. This pictorial alchemy recalls palimpsests—parchments that carry the marks of successive writings. As a result, his motifs possess an elusive, almost ghostly force, relentless and perpetually on the verge of dissolution.
A constant in Léonard’s practice is ambiguity—uncertain spaces and fleeting perspectives. This underscores once again the central role of drawing in his work. The line, its erasure, the darkened surface, and the luminous void structure the painting as much as they contribute to its transience. His works breathe an enchanting atmosphere, as if we were witnessing a contemporary archaeology, where the depicted appears to arrive from a distant past.
