Olivier LEDROIT À l'ombre des songes
Presentation
The Huberty & Breyne Gallery in Brussels is delighted to be hosting a special retrospective exhibition of the work of Olivier Ledroit from 8 April to 14 May 2022.
Olivier Ledroit is a French artist and comic book illustrator, born in Meaux in 1969.
At the age of twenty, Ledroit released the first volume of the Chroniques de la Lune Noire, a comic series written by François Froideval and published by Éditions Zenda and later Dargaud. Ledroit produced all the drawings from 1989 to 1994 and created the covers for the entire series. His medieval-fantasy style, inspired by 19th-century fantasy literature, fascinated readers and artists alike, giving rise to a new comic genre known as the “gothic comic”.
Ledroit went on to publish Xoco (1994-1995), Ennemis mortels (1997) and La Porte écarlate (1998), and in 1999 he and Jacques Collin founded Éditions Nickel, continuing to publish Ledroit’s own albums alongside the work of other fantasy writers. He collaborated with English comics writer Pat Mills on Sha (1996-1999) and Requiem Chevalier Vampire (2000-2012), and during the same period contributed to two multiple-author series, Les Contes de l'Ankou and Le Monde des dragons. He also worked on the Heroes of Might and Magic video game series for Ubisoft. In 2007, he brought out a magnificent 288-page artbook with Nickel illustrating the different aspects of his practice, from best-selling comics to preparatory sketches and unpublished drawings. Then, in 2014, Ledroit found a new home for his fairy-tale universe in a comic book series entitled Wika, written by Thomas Day and published by Glénat.
Olivier Ledroit’s style is original and instantly recognisable. His pencil marks are barely visible in his comic book plates, which are often finished in watercolour. His pictures combine several techniques, including drawing, painting and collage. And he regularly incorporates lace, keys and fragments of gold- or silver-coloured metal in his canvases.
The act of looking is central to his work. In the words of Eugène Delacroix, “in painting it is as if some mysterious bridge were created between the spirit of the persons in the picture and that of the beholder”. Two centuries later, Olivier Ledroit is responding to those words by creating a new bridge in the history of art.
Private view: Thursday 7 april from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm, with the artist.