"Young artist Paul P. has become internationally known for his haunting paintings and drawings of the faces and figures of young men, all sourced from pre-AIDS gay magazines. The artist mines this huge archive of figures and reimagines these young men with the aesthetic vocabulary of latenineteenth-century art.
Nonchaloir, the artist’s first monograph, collects over 100 of these stunning portraits in a small, intimate volume. P.’s subjects and their poses, at times languishing, wistful, or weary, are imbued with references to famed painters James McNeil, Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Even the title itself is referential: nonchaloir is a defunct French word suggesting repose and resignation, and is found in works by Mallarmé and Baudelaire.
Nonchaloir, printed in a limited first edition run of 2,000 copies, comprises an achingly romantic and sublimely heartbreaking journey through eras now long gone, all the while venerating history and beauty.
Paul P. has held recent solo exhibitions at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, and Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, as well as notable group exhibitions at Mary Boone Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery in New York and the Power Plant in Toronto. His work has been profiled and published in numerous art and fashion magazines. Recently he collaborated with designer HediSlimane for the spring 2006 Dior Homme campaign, which featured his drawings. A number of his drawings are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. P. was born in Canada and currently lives in Paris."