Philippe Shangti
He used models dressed as botoxed dolls and also well known comic book heroes like Hulk, Batman or Superman[8] His provocative art attracted the attention of collectors and celebrities on vacation in Saint-Tropez.
It is a unique artistic concept imagined by Philippe Shangti, where photographs, sculptures and live shows, inspired by his latest collection, blend together.
Through creative shows, the artist brings his creations to life on the restaurant's central tables, arranged like podiums, creating a living art gallery.
[10] At the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, the contemporary artist exposes a part of his works under the title "Art is my hope", at the thermal complex Caldea in Escaldes-Engordany.
[21][22] 8 sculptures and 18 large-format photos are exhibited, including misappropriations of the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci and works by Picasso.
[21] After winning a national competition in which 27 artists participated,[6] Philippe Shangti is chosen to represent the Principality of Andorra at the 58th Venice Biennale, one of the oldest, most important and prestigious contemporary art exhibitions in the world.
[4] Inspired by Gustave Courbet's work, Philippe Shangti presented "Beauté Sauvage" ("Wild Beauty"), a new exhibition first visible online on his website, where the woman is converted in the center of the seduction.
[32][33] Later the same year, he exhibited his work temporary in Erarta, the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg.
[34] In March 2023, Philippe Shangti donates the statue Babies are hope, which was part of the project "The Future is Now", to the Museum of Fine Arts at Carcassonne.
In each collection, the artist chooses to publish related artworks linked to a theme such as drugs, junk food, luxury, abuses of cosmetic surgery, prostitution, women's freedom of expression, pollution, environment, animal protection.
[37]On some occasions, Philippe Shangti has been inspired by photos taken by James Bidgood or David LaChapelle, whose works also present a critique of the society full of excess and vanity.
[37] During interviews, Philippe Shangti cites the French artist and fashion photographer Guy Bourdin known for his provocative images as another source of inspiration.
[5] Émilie Frafil, conservation assistant at the Museum of Fine Arts of Carcassonne, explains that the use of nudity in Philippe Shangti's work reveals the beauty but also constitutes small hints of historical, mythological, biblical and artistic references.
[37] In Shangti Da Vinci Fusion Basic, four famous painting portraits of women in half body made by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, Mary Magdalene, Mona Lisa, La Belle Ferronnière, give way to the naked busts of the photo models.
Philippe Shangti makes a nod to the Italian Renaissance where artists were inspired by Antiquity, a period during which the naked body was magnified.
[37] The staging of the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch's work The Garden of Earthly Delights confronts two antinomic visions.
If in Gothic art, nudity symbolizes sin, human misery, in Philippe Shangti it is on the contrary synonymous with beauty, aestheticism, ideal.
