That's All I Have To Say (2025)

A project initiated during the artist residency at GlaugauAIR (Berlin) in fall 2025

Untitled (2025)
oil, acrylic, oil sticks and pen on birch pannel
50 x 40 cm

Théo Metais is a French self-taught artist based in Berlin. Drawing on his background in film journalism, his visual language harnesses the narrative power of cinema alongside the expressive possibilities of painting, illustration, and comics.

As his practice has evolved, he's turned increasingly to satire and caricature, inspired by Goya's grotesques, Soutine's brushwork, the masterworks of 1980s comics, and contemporary artists celebrated for their bold, expressive line, particularly Alice Neel, Rose Wylie, Georg Baselitz and Philip Guston.

Untitled (2025)
oil, acrylic, oil sticks and pen on birch pannel
50 x 40 cm

Initially inspired by the American actor Buster Keaton, Metais creates images that probe inner vulnerability. Following careful preparation, his pieces are often completed in a single sitting and carry an intentional rawness. He seeks unguarded ways to express the inexpressible, often depicting anonymous struggling figures that manifest inner turmoil and a peculiar beauty. Their distorted proportions become metaphors for the porous self navigating troubled times.