Francine Lecoultre
Artist Biography

Francine Lecoultre is a mixed media artist: painter, sculptor, and print maker.
Born in the French speaking Switzerland, in a family of Swiss craftsmen and precision watchmakers, she graduated in Art Education from the University of Bern. Francine taught arts and crafts at “Ecole Normale Cantonale” in Fribourg, a transition that greatly influenced the evolution of her artistic practice. In 1993, she relocated to Los Angeles, graduating in Costume Design from FIDM, Fashion Institute of Design &Merchandising.

Francine has been working as a Costume Designer and Textile Artist for top film Productions, and major theatrical Productions for the past twenty years. She is a professor of Costume Design at FIDM.
Lecoultre’s work has been featured in cinema, theater, and opera, musical-circus, as well as art installations from Shanghai to Geneva. Her recent works have been featured in solo exhibitions and international group shows. She is an active participant for 10 years in the bi-annual “Open Studios” at Brewery Arts Complex, Los Angeles.

Working out of her Downtown Los Angeles studio, Lecoultre is constantly inventing radically new forms, materials and processes in her works, contributing to the evolution of abstract sculpture through her technical working methods.
Lecoultre’s creations are often inspired by world travel, disclosing the wonder of nature in its unlimited magic, with both simplicity and clarity. They have a textured, organic and tactile quality with multiple layers. Francine favors techniques built in superposition, such as sculpting, molding, silk screening, and paper art, celebrating the handmade with infinite patience, precision, and a passion for innovation and cutting-edge technology.

She playfully uses experimental, industrial, found or recycled materials, embracing imperfection and mixing the old with the new. She goes near obsessive lengths to recreate the effect of time and wear in the unique pieces and art commissions she has created around the world.
In her latest exhibitions, Francine has presented installations with sculptural objects, suggesting theatrical stage sets. Her corsets are handcrafted from paper art with plants, harvested in both California and Switzerland, much like papyrus was fashioned by ancient Egyptians. They include organic and natural materials such as bark tree, walnut husks and skid ink.

Lecoultre’s work exudes beauty, luxury, elegance, and outrageousness. Her mastery of technical process, innovation, and invention have spurred the development of new techniques and 3-D textures in her artworks, drawing on both her rich knowledge and skills in costume and textile design. Francine creates images that are provocative, emotional, and always beautiful, opening a door into a world of vivid imagination, remaining us of a distant future.

 

Recent Exhibitions

2017

  • Gallery Zhanglong & Lecoultre, The Brewery Arts Complex
  • American Portraits – 3D stereo portraits by James Payne, Photography

2016

  • Brewery Arts Complex – Open Studios – “Sculptural People”
  • LA Story, documentary by Cary Grenier, Television Suisse Roamnde, RTS

2015

  • The Loft at Liz’s: The Nature Show “Palate to Palette.”
  • FIDM Museum Shop: Installation and Video Presentation: “Corsets” at the occasion of the “9th Annual

Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design.”

  • Barbara’s – The Brewery Art’s Complex: “Coda: Chrome,” Installation- Performance
  • Brewery Arts Complex: “Open Studios” – Spring & Fall