Our Story
2018-2020 – The Genesis : Alix
It all began in 2018 with Alix. That’s the name my old friend Victor and I gave to our first art gallery, an acronym for Art Lives in Xhibitions. At 25 years old, fresh out of college, we wanted to make art accessible by taking it out of traditional galleries and museums. So we founded Alix, a new kind of online art gallery that exhibited the works of more than 70 artists in restaurants and hotels in a dozen cities across France.
Unfortunately, Alix had to close in March 2020. Pretty quickly, a crazy idea sprouted in our adventure-seeking minds: as soon as lockdown ended, we would travel across France by bike to meet artists and organize exhibitions.
In June 2020, our bikes were ready for the journey. A trip of more than 5,000 km from Orléans to Nice, via La Loire à Vélo, La Vélodyssée, the Canal du Midi, and the Côte d’Azur. We were interviewed by radio stations and appeared on France 2, our calves grew stronger, and Alix grew up.
But the second lockdown at the end of 2020 put a definitive end to this project, as our network of exhibitors was closed until further notice. Alix closed its doors in December. Victor and I went our separate ways.
2021-2023 – My Singulart years
In 2021, armed with this experience and my contacts with artists, I joined Singulart, an international leader in online art galleries. I held various positions there, working daily with artists from all over the world.
In 2023, I left Singulart to start my own business as an artist agent.
I then worked with Luc Villard, Catherine Ludeau, Frederic Halbreich, Anne Garde, Corinne Malfreyt, and Ta Byrne, all of whom I met at SINGULART.
2024-2025 – Birth of the project in Eze Village
In the summer of 2024, Luc Villard introduced me to the village of Eze on the French Riviera, where he had been exhibiting for several years during the summer season. I discovered a charming and picturesque village with narrow cobbled streets overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was love at first sight. I offered to join Luc there to help him structure and develop his business for the 2025 season. The idea then germinated to revive Alix in this setting under a new identity.
I had the opportunity to obtain premises in Eze and exhibit some of the artists I had been representing for several years: I finally opened my first gallery!
Alix shed its four letters and became Galerie Raynaud.
Our Artists
Catherine Ludeau
Catherine is an artist I met at Singulart in 2021, where I was her agent. I was immediately struck by the extreme delicacy of her work.
With an academic background in oil and watercolor painting in New York, she discovered epoxy resin in 2011. Since then, this material has been her favorite medium. Using a dyeing technique she developed in her Paris studio, she gives shape to the forms she imagines and then draws in a quest for purity and tranquility.
Catherine works with relaxing shades of blue, green, and turquoise on the one hand, and warmer shades of red and rust on the other. She also uses gold leaf, which she applies to her resin for a spectacular effect.
The curves, the colors… are directly inspired by nature: blues for the sky, golds for the sun, and amber for the earth. The serene and immutable force of the elements emanates from the canvas with a wonderful communicative energy.
Her works are on permanent display in Paris (Galerie Hors Champs) and Malmö (Nordic Art Agency), as well as this summer at the Galerie Raynaud.
Ta Byrne
Ta is a Thai artist who immediately caught my eye when I was browsing Singulart’s artist catalog in 2020, looking for gems for my Alix gallery. At the time, Ta was already offering very large-format paintings at relatively low prices. Her popularity has continued to grow ever since. Working from her magnificent studio/terrace/jungle in Ko Samui, she has the opportunity to paint on very large formats, up to nearly 3 meters square!
A multidisciplinary artist, she recently wrote and illustrated a book: Egg Island, a story about characters with egg-shaped heads that strongly echoes the current world. Her unique universe features iconic characters: The Boss, the Lady in Red, the Conspirators, etc., who are reminiscent of certain archetypes in our post-war Western societies.
Ta has sold her work in over 70 countries and is a member of Artfinder’s committee of artist ambassadors. Exclusive artist: Galerie Raynaud is the only physical gallery in the world where you can admire her work, so don’t miss out!
Corinne Malfreyt
Corinne is an artist I met at Singulart. After years at the head of a communications department, she threw in the towel. Too much stress and a work environment too far removed from what she wanted. She then trained academically in drawing and worked with oils.
Passionate about movement and dance, she works on the body as a source of life energy. Her work is inspired by the greatest artists, from Eadweard Muybridge to Loïe Fuller, Pina Bausch and, more recently, the dancer Lico.
She enjoyed immense success at the Carré d’Artistes gallery in Moscow, where she exhibited around twenty works in the summer of 2025.
She is currently working on a collaborative project between painting and dance, in association with choreographer Anne Tournié. This original performance combines live painting and contemporary dance and will soon be on display in Paris.
Luc Villard
If there could only be one, it would be him. The man who brought Galerie Raynaud into being: Luc Villard. Luc is a self-taught artist who has enjoyed phenomenal success since the Covid-19 crisis. He has exploded onto the online scene, particularly on the Singulart platform, where I first encountered him. Through Singulart, he has sold more than 500 works in over 35 countries.
In his perpetual quest for the Painting with a capital P, he explores many avenues, from abstract painting in “ordered chaos” to more simplistic sketches, where a white line runs through his works, forming friendly or loving silhouettes. His style is recognizable among a thousand and immediately touched me.
These are paintings that convey a universal message: being together, loving one another, forming a society. Luc won three international awards in the US in 2021 for his abstract work and is currently exhibiting in China, Corsica (Porto Vecchio), Paris, and Venice.
I invite you to discover his Pop Family series at the Raynaud Gallery this summer.
Brett Gradel
Brett is an artist I discovered when he exhibited for a few days at the municipal hall in Eze Village in 2024. His work fascinated me; I had never seen anything like it before.
He works with his favorite raw material, wood, and creates works using a technique known as “fusion” marquetry. By assembling dozens of different types of wood by hand, he produces contemporary compositions that are sometimes cubist, sometimes more figurative.
A tennis fan, he has created works featuring Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Stefanos Tsitsipas. He recently completed a commission for the clubhouse of the Garden Tennis Club in Monaco, host of the famous Masters 1000 tournament. His work caught the attention of Prince Albert I, who himself commissioned a piece for the Prince’s Palace.
This season, I invite you to discover two of his creations that reflect the breadth of his work: L’adieu du marin (The Sailor’s Farewell), a cubist composition made from more than 10 types of wood, and Naufragés (Shipwrecked), a mixed composition of fusion marquetry and layered wood, with abalone mother-of-pearl and gold leaf inserts. These works represent hundreds of hours of work…