project & artist

Born in 1983, Ludovic Chappex is an illustrator, poster designer, painter, and graphic designer based in Monthey, Switzerland. Trained at the Geneva School of Applied Arts (today HEAD), he has developed a distinctive visual language that combines the clarity of graphic communication with the originality of drawing, often infused with a subtle and offbeat sense of humour.

Drawing inspiration from the people, landscapes and built environments that surround him, Ludovic he bridges nostalgia and modernity through a keen sense of observation and a deeply human perspective.

As much a draughtsman as a painter and poster designer, he moves effortlessly between portraiture, landscape and imagined worlds. Equally at ease depicting everyday reality and inventing dreamlike or supernatural scenes, his work is consistently guided by a strong sense of poetry that transcends the subject matter itself.

Following a short exploratory residency in Genoa two years ago and several stays in Italy, drawn by the Mediterranean light, he has chosen to continue his explorations in Istanbul, a setting radically different from his own. Equipped with sketchbooks and notebooks, he will wander through the city, attentive to its rhythms, details and unexpected encounters. He arrives with an open mind and a willingness to be surprised, embracing the experience of a vast and ever-changing metropolis far removed from the small Alpine town he calls home.

Rhythms, light, landscapes, sounds, smells and cultures will become new sources of inspiration, offering opportunities both to deepen his observations and to free and expand his gesture as an artist.

At the end of his residency, Ludovic will present a new body of work at Secant Space Gallery, culminating in an exhibition that will remain on view throughout the summer.

Sicily, graphite on paper

Mantova, watercolor and pencil