Ever since his youth, Philippe has had two great passions: art and biology. Although he opted to study biology at university, he never turned his back on art, taking courses at various art colleges on the side throughout his degree.
It was at the ‘School of the Museum of Fine Arts’ in Boston that he first discovered printmaking: “I was fascinated by the method of layering different images on top of each other. It still fascinates me today! What I also love is reinventing such a traditional technique with modern means,” says the artist.
Philippe uses monoprint, a printing technique that cannot be mass produced. In this process, colours and surfaces overlap and mix on the paper, creating a striking spatial depth. The prints are then cut up and reassembled as a collage. Here he also integrates parts of advertising posters that he’s collected in cities like Mexico City, Paris, Palermo, London and Miami. “The idea is to capture the culture and energy of the city and reproduce this as a printed image,” he explains, describing his approach.
During the pandemic travel restrictions in 2020, Philippe asked his international artist friends to send him posters from the streets of their hometowns.
“I received such a vast variety of posters,” he says. “Every artist has their own individual preferences and perspectives, and so chooses something very different. That’s why I see the collages that emerged from this project as a collaboration.”
Philippe is back to travelling the world again, and is always on the lookout for new material: “Collecting posters has become an integral part of my artistic work.” But not all poster clippings find their way into his collages; some also end up on the wall in his small studio in Bonnevoie: “Some fragments are simply too big or too figurative to be used in a collage. Instead, I put them up on my studio wall, where they serve as a great source of inspiration!”
When he’s not working in his own studio, he works in the studios of ‘Atelier Empreinte’, Luxembourg’s only artists’ printmaking co-operative, of which he’s been a member since 2012.
But Philippe has not only made a name for himself in the local art scene as an artist, but also as a curator. In 2014, he founded the non-profit organisation ‘Art2Cure’, which organises art exhibitions as fundraisers: “The idea was to put together something cool for artists that would also help raise money for biomedical research.”
With his outstanding commitment to his work and causes and keen passion for collaboration and innovation, Philippe continues to be destined for great things in the future.
Instagram: @philippelamesch