Born in Nice in 1944, Roland Flexner has lived and worked in New York (USA) since 1982.
Born in Nice, France, Roland Flexner left France in 1982 to settle in New York, where he has lived for over forty years. His research focuses on the practice of drawing, in which he studies the interaction between chance and intention. He began this study in 1995 with the Bubble Drawings series, a group of drawings created with Indian ink and breath. Later, after a stay in Japan following an invitation from the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, the artist turned his attention to Japanese art, studying the making of sumi ink in the Kansai region. The images produced are a permanent interweaving of chance, the properties of the medium used and the artist's intention to make precise gestures. These methods give rise to images close to a phantasmagorical universe, stimulating the viewer's intellectual and sensitive perception.
Roland Flexner has had numerous significant exhibitions since 1969. His work has been shown in major institutions in France, including: various FRACs (Auvergne 2023, Corse 2022, Picardie 2016...) at the MRAC in Sérignan (2020), the IAC in Villeurbannes (2016), the Maison Rouge in Paris (2014), the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou in Paris (2013), the CNAC - Villa Arson in Nice (2013), the CRAC in Sète (1999). His work is also shown extensively in the USA: NYU Grey Art Museum in New York and Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, MA (2024), Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester (2021), Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo (2017), Indiana Museum of Art in Indianapolis (2012), Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2010), Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (2009), Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield and Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (1997), PS1in New York (1982). Roland Flexner's work has also been shown for many years around the world: at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (2016), numerous times in Japan (2023, 2021, 2019, 2004...), Brazil (2023), Spain (2019), Hong Kong (2018), Lebanon (2017), Germany (2016), Russia (2012), Poland (2008)...
Roland Flexner's works have found their way into major public and private collections such as the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Fondation Guerlain (Paris), the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (Paris), the Museums of Sérignan, Strasbourg, Nice, Saint-Etienne... As well as the Fondation Pinault (Venice, Paris), the National Museum of Modern Art of Tokyo (Japan), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York).
Roland Flexner's collaboration with Galerie Nathalie Obadia dates back to 2001.