I am a visual artist based between Paris and London, and have recently graduated with an MA in Fine Arts (painting) from Camberwell College of Arts. My work questions what identity means to me, through the exploration of worlds that live, and have lived, around me. My practice centres on the chance encounter, and its role within what Édouard Glissant called the ‘Cultural Rhizome’: a network of intertwined histories and identities that resists fixed boundaries. Growing up amidst multiple cultures, I have always inhabited a space of ‘entre-deux’
(in-between), which informs both the subjects I depict, and the processes I use.
Influenced by Surrealism and the practice of flânerie, I move through the environments that surround me by collecting fragments, stories,
or what I like to call ‘ghosts’. These later resurface in my compositions, sometimes blurring the line between observation and imagination.
I work across painting, illustration and printmaking, using these media as a means of archival exploration. Often working in ultramarine blue, I respond intuitively to images of my collected chance encounters, allowing the paint to move, drip, and settle without control. I let the raw canvas remain visible, its presence part of the dialogue. The surface functions as an open archive of encounters, and the material process itself, mirrors the rhizomatic network Glissant describes: ‘One that perpetuates the middle’. Non-linear, interwoven, and always in motion.
Throughout my research and experimentation, a question persists: Why do I choose to paint what I do? Perhaps each work is an unconscious attempt to reconcile my fragmented sense of belonging, to build connections between dispersed histories and identities.
In allowing these fragments to coexist on the same surface, I hope to open up an ongoing dialogue between pasts, presents, or possible futures.
payen.alice@gmail.com alicepayen_
Education
2024 - 2025 | University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts, London - MA Fine arts, painting
2022 - 2024 | École de Condé, Paris - MA in Illustration and graphic novels
2019 - 2022 | École de Condé, Paris - BA in illustration and animated images
2017 - 2019 | École Camondo, Paris -Preparatory class for the Grandes Écoles
Selected Exhibitions
2025 | Hisense X VIDAA, Dolby Screening Room, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2025 | Metabolizer, South London Gallery, London, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2025 | Bridges, Luminoir Art, The Koppel Project, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2025 | Post-graduate degree show, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2025 | Pop up show: Inside-outside, From A to B Gallery, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2025 | The Spaces Between, Student Union Space, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2025 | Pop-up show, Millbank Tower, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2024 | Studio Pop-up show, London, UK - Group Exhibition
2024 | Grosse Victime Magazine, Gallerie Art factory, Paris, France - Group Exhibition
2024 | Sacrifice de Moulins, Paris, France - Fanzine Salon
2024 | Je t’aime Anatomie, L’officine, Paris, France - Group Exhibition
2024 | Festival Sarao, Velvet Moon, Montreuil, France - Group Exhibition
2023 | Gare au Gorille qui Dessine avec le Stylo Bille, Paris, France - Fanzine Salon
2023 | Collectif Amer Café, Le Bouclard, Paris, France - Group Exhibition
Work experience & commissioned projects
2025 | Scattering and Gathering: Collecting Chance Encounters, South London Gallery - Organized and led a collaborative zine-making workshop
2025 | Next Door EU, Bruxelles, Belgium - Illustration and graphic design work
2025 | Institut Notre-Dame, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France - Graphic Design work and logo creation
2024 | Manuel Dileva, Paris, France - Graphic Design work and logo creation
2024 | Librairie L’apprenti, Paris, France - Screen printing merchandise
2024 | Antoine Paris, Paris, France - Internship
2023 | Institut Pratique du Journalisme Dauphine-PSL, Paris, France - Illustrations for the yearly Mag-book
2023 | Janson de Sailly, Hypokhâgne, Khâgne A/L, Paris, France - Logo illustration for the yearly university sweater
2022 | Babils du Monde, Vanves, France - Graphic Design and creative direction work
2022 | Une Vie Normale, Paris, France - Poster design
2022 | Comment Dire: Mes Petits Loups - Podcast, Paris, France - Cover Illustration
2021 | Crustacoupe, Paris, France - Graphic Design and creative direction work
2021 | National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield, UK - Internship/volunteer work
2020 | Artist assistant to Lucien Murat, Paris, France
2019 | Painted fresco on boat - Sables D’Olonne, France
2018 | The Gavroche Newspaper, Bangkok, Thailand - Internship
2017 | Service Culturel of the Alliance Française, Yangon, Burma - Internship
Publications
2025 | Scattering and Gathering: Collecting Chance Encounters - Self-published Zine
2025 | Soft Witness: 50 Artists 50 Stories - Featuring my illustration and text: ‘Thyia’ - Digital artist book
2024 | Histoires de Nez - Graphic Novel
2024 | Grosse Victime Magazine - Featuring my illustration: ‘Le Petit Poucet du Champ de Mars’ - Magazine
2024 | Illuzine - Featuring my illustrations from the series: ‘Gens qui marchent’ - Magazine
2024 | Spagzine - Zine for the band The Spaghetti Sluts’s ‘Wazalbum’ album release - Zine
2023 | Amer Café, second edition - Collaborative zine
2023 | Amer Café, first edition - Collaborative zine
2023 | Na - Graphic Novel
2022 | A Burmese Angel - Illustrated Novel