One could say Yoann Bonneville is a portrait artist. But that would hardly encompass everything else that goes on in his artwork. Rather than faithfully representing women’s faces, his subjects double as the platform for an experiment in color and shapes. And cleverly, the artist also inserts his initials—YBA—into each composition, innovating how an artist can show ownership over their work with just one look.
Born in 2000, Bonneville launched his career as a self-taught artist after finishing his baccalaureate. His style became sharper a year later when he became known by some galleries and buyers. “The year 2020 marked the beginning of my artistic career, the first year in which my art was born and the first year in which I began to make a living from it,” he tells My Modern Met. “My art has become unique and recognizable thanks to the fragmentation that characterizes my faces, fragmented into the three letters Y, B, and A, or fragmented into my signature. The first fragmented face is called New Hope and was created in 2020, which marked the beginning of my artistic style.”
Bonneville usually creates portraits of ordinary people, which is a purposeful choice. “I like that observers can imagine what they want and interpret the works in their own way, without giving the observers an imposed reading and understanding,” he says. Some of the faces are based on photos that he reworks during the sketching process. “Then I create my own colors, shading, background, light, fragmentation. In 2025, I also plan to take photos of models myself to go a little further in my compositions.”
Since he has worked on both large and small canvases, Bonneville sees the merits and pitfalls of each. “I like to work on canvas, on skateboards, on wood, on cardboard, and in all formats,” Bonneville shares. “What I like is to go from a very large format where we have the sensations of al fresco with ample movements using a lot of paint, then move on to a small format which takes up a much calmer work, then I like to come back to a large format to find this frenzy, movements, and painting, much more physical.”
Bonneville’s use of color is one of the most striking elements of his pieces, and it’s something he hopes to continue experimenting with further. “I actually really like working with color, even if I’m also thinking of developing a series in black and white,” the artist says. “The train of color interests me a lot, mainly in relation to the almost infinite mixture of shades that we can obtain and put side by side, know how to create contrasts, find which color to put next to another so that both exist or how to make one color take over the others, it’s this whole chromatic range and this research around colors and light and shading that fascinates me.”
Ultimately, beyond what’s in front of them, Bonneville hopes his viewers interpret his work as they wish, so in the end, they will take away what they need from his work. “I make my art without trying to please, without trying to make fashionable works,” he concludes. “Then people like it, others don’t, and that’s what interests me too, so I simply let people interpret my work and retain what they want or don’t want to retain.”
To stay up to date with the artist, follow Bonneville on Instagram.
Artist Yoann Bonneville experiments with the portrait genre to create vibrant pieces full of color and graffiti-inspired motifs.
Cleverly, the artist also inserts his initials—YBA—into each composition, innovating how an artist can show ownership over their work with just one look.
“I like that observers can imagine what they want and interpret the works in their own way, without giving the observers an imposed reading and understanding,” he says.
“I like to work on canvas, on skateboards, on wood, on cardboard, and in all formats,” Bonneville shares.
“I make my art without trying to please, without trying to make fashionable works,” he concludes. “Then people like it, others don’t, and that’s what interests me too, so I simply let people interpret my work and retain what they want or don’t want to retain.”
Yoann Bonneville: Website | Instagram
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Yoann Bonneville. Quotes were translated from French and edited for length & clarity.
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