Biography

Claudio Elkoubi was born and raised in Marseille, in the south of France, in a family of Algerian and Italian Jewish immigrants. He is one of those who never stopped drawing after learning to hold a pencil. After a few years of daydreaming around the Cinqcentquarante studio, created by his brother in the family apartment, he studied graphic design in Marseille. At the beginning of 2020, he launched a freelance activity where he created for militant associations. As a transmasculine person, he moved to Montreal during the pandemic to explore the queer and artistic scene in Quebec.

His joyful and colorful universe is populated by pensive and disillusioned characters. In his paintings, he chooses joy through form, but reflection through the subjects put forward. Combining suspended spaces and meditative bodies, his illustrations are crossed by the themes of doubt and the desire to rise. Claudio likes generous works that raise both a smile and a question. Very inspired by Botero’s approach, he tends to provide an accessible to all production as he create links between queer and more traditional circles. His characters being mostly gender non-conforming, one often wonders why a mustache adorns the face of a character with a sagging chest. Claudio wants to bring complexity and nuance, both in his thoughts and in the small details that dot his compositions.