François Martinache

Biography

François Martinache (born in 1967, France) is a French digital artist who lives in Lille and works in Roubaix, France. His work operates at the intersection of reality and virtuality, blending techniques such as glitches, artificial intelligence, and 3D scanning. By transforming everyday objects into digital sculptures, he challenges our perception of the tangible and the imaginary.

Using photography and photogrammetry, Martinache converts physical objects into digital forms. These metamorphoses turn familiar things into fleeting, virtual entities – hybrid works, often in the form of animations or installations, that blur the boundaries between the real and the virtual. His artistic practice revolves around the tension between the materiality of data and poetic abstraction. His works are often marked by an experimental aesthetic in which digital errors and algorithmic processes are deliberately used as expressive tools. Through the fragmentation and reassembly of real objects, he creates fragile visual spaces that oscillate between documentation and fiction.

Martinache studied at the École supérieure d’Art et de Design de Valenciennes (ESAD) and the École Régionale des Beaux-Arts (ERBA) in Tourcoing. In the 1990s, he exhibited in a solo show at the Centre Pablo Picasso in Trith-Saint-Léger and participated in the fourth Biennale of “jeunes talents” in Charleroi, Belgium. In 2004, he presented his work at the "Huntenkunst" Biennale in Doetinchem, Netherlands. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Wicar Rom. In 2021, he showcased his work in an exhibition at the Espace d'art Chaillioux in Fresnes. Martinache was a participant in an artistic residency as part of the intercultural exchange program "Lille–Beijing / Beijing–Lille."

His works are part of major public and private collections, including the Rabot Dutilleuil collection in Lille. Additional commissions and acquisitions include a public commission from the city of Templemars for the Médiathèque Noël Dejonghe, the acquisition of Schéma de Ponzi and Arbre de Noël by the city of Lille, as well as a commissioned work for the Musée d'Art et d'Industrie La Piscine in Roubaix.

In addition to his artistic practice, Martinache has been active as an art educator, notably at the Centre d'Arts Plastiques et Visuels in Lille and the École d'Art de Calais. There, he led workshops on digital painting techniques and sampling methods, offering innovative insights into the teaching of contemporary art.

Download Artist's CV

Works