Yolande Milan Batteau

“To do truly visionary work you must approach familiar materials with new processes, familiar process with new materials, I toggle between both.”

Yolande Milan Batteau makes paintings, objects and installations. She has honed her collaboration with hundreds of ancient materials and methods over the last 30 years, drawing inspiration from natural phenomena and artistic anthropologies alike. Batteau’s lifelong curiosity in material culture has informed her intuitive cartographies of a universe at play with itself through human endeavor.

Born in 1970 to creative parents, Yolande Milan Batteau has been exhibiting her work since the early 1990’s. She has studied at The Sorbonne, The San Francisco Art Institute and The School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Despite exposure to the creative world through her formal education, Batteau generally works as an autodidact. Batteau’s surfaces and objects traditionally involve pushing marble dust, encaustic, resin, leaf and waxes beyond their historical limits. These materials are approached with processes of adding and taking away, tooling, burnishing and several secret techniques she has invented and refined over the last twenty years. Currently, she is making fine art work by exploring new media and content.

Batteau is fascinated by spiritual interconnectedness, often retreating into the natural world for artistic revitalization and inspiration. Having travelled to over 50 countries, Batteau has a strong affinity for a wide range of cultures and their arts, including African, Asian and European. Over the last five years, Batteau has deepened her work in three dimensions, creating a body of work relating to scrying, the natural world, and the immediacy of the present moment. Her expanding awareness of and interest in embodiment has enriched her life and practices.

Batteau serves as the Founder and Principal Artist of Callidus Guild, and oversees teams of artisans who specialize in gilding, plasterwork and painted finishes to realize both commercial and personal artwork. She has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, Parsons, and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Batteau’s work has appeared in notable publications including: Art News, Art Forum, The New York Times, Surface, Whitewall, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Residences, Metropolis, and Elle Decor.