French American artist Iris J. Arnaud navigates the duality of the emotional and physical state; much like she negotiates the interpersonal dynamics and socio-complexities of the old world and the new.

From growing-up in France as a Parisian student at ESAG Penninghen and Academie Charpentier, to become a professional artist in the US, Arnaud proposes an ideal combination of heritage and modernity.

Influenced by abstract expressionism movement (and especially artists like Oskar Kokoschka and Zao Wou Ki) and by Rothko's tactful deployment of color fields, Arnaud's use of tempestuous compositions with clashing colors creates an emotional intensity.

The relationship between artist and paint, paint and canvas, and painted canvas to the viewers eye culminates in an intricate dance between Arnaud's emotive strokes and the responses they provoke. Captured at this intersection is a dichotomous effervescence that straddles melancholy and optimism, romanticism and isolation, despair and enlightenment.

Iris J. Arnaud's paintings are ethereal and elegant. She modernizes and feminizes the language of abstraction and action. She currently lives and works in Paris, France.