The story
Victor Illouz, known as Zoulli Art. A French painter and sculptor born in Paris and based in Levallois-Perret. Self-taught: an identity forged not in art schools, but in the street, in improvised studios and in direct contact with the public.
Quote within 24 hours
Heart is the keyGaleries Lafayette stand
Biography
For more than eight years, his work has stood out as a singular synthesis of the heritage of classical art and the codes of contemporary pop culture. Through expressionist painting, monumental sculpture and live painting, he questions the place of humankind in a changing world: the sacred confronted with the absurd, the rigour of marble against the exuberance of the present.
The first artist to perform live inside the Musée Grévin, for the institution's 140th anniversary, he has exhibited at Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées, the Hôtel de Crillon, the Louvre, Club Thirty-Nine in Monaco and several private galleries between Paris, Nice and Miami. His works, numbered and in limited editions, are sold at auction by Artcurial.
Les Dieux ont craqué
“I am not mocking a god. I am saying something about us: about the way we make things sacred, consume them, forget them. Humour is my form of lucidity.”
Victor Illouz, Zoulli ArtAt work, in acrylic
Artist statement
My work was born of a tension I have never managed to resolve: between the chaos I feel and the order I look for. Between what is beautiful because it is perfect, and what is beautiful because it is true. I do not resolve that tension: I put it on the canvas, into the sculpture, into the gesture. And that is where it becomes something.
I work in acrylic, in impasto, with brushes, palette knives, sometimes my hands. I love thick paint, layers building up, accidents that become decisions. Sculpture gives me another dimension, literally. What painting suggests, sculpture asserts.
My world draws on Greek and Roman mythology, on the icons of popular culture, on the faces that defined their era. Not to reproduce them, but to question them. What interests me is the moment when viewers recognise something, and suddenly find themselves face to face with themselves.
I chose not to stay inside galleries. Live painting, public spaces, collaborations, workshops with children in hospitals: all of this is my way of saying that art does not belong to an elite. It belongs to those who look at it.
Giving back
A committed artist, Victor devotes a significant part of his work to charitable causes. In eight years, more than one million euros have been raised through auctions of his works, for charities such as Make-A-Wish, the Hôpital Franco-Britannique, La Voix de l'Enfant, the Association Solidarité Soignants and the Téléthon. He puts his passion and his talent at the service of sick and disadvantaged children.
Hôpital Franco-Britannique€24,180 · cancer research
Portrait of Paul Bocuse€10,000 · Aguttes auction
Gala Make-A-WishWith Anne Roumanoff
Charity auctionMarilyn artwork at auction
Les Enfants de la TerreWith Yannick Noah
Gala dinnerPavillon Potel et Chabot
The 2020 challenge
In 2020, with exhibitions cancelled by the pandemic, Victor set himself an extraordinary challenge: to take to the road and deliver his works himself, straight to his clients' homes. A tour of France and beyond: Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland.
Four weeks on the road, more than 450 artworks handed over in person, right up to 25 December. An approach of total accessibility, where the artist comes to meet everyone. Le Parisien made a report about it.
Watch the Le Parisien report (in French) →
450 clientsA big thank you
On the roadThe van full of artworks
Work with Zoulli Art
Live painting, custom portraits, murals and art cars. Quote within 24 hours.
The private Circle
The next chapters are being written right now: new collections, sculptures, exhibitions, expansion in the United States. The Circle is told first.
Join the Circle (in French)