E4 / S1
Dorian’s Studio

               Square Meters features the painter Dorian Cohen. Starting with the comparison of the white canvas to an unwritten page, then speaking about the use of red as a color to emphasize theatricality in painting, to finish with the description of a big canvas he is preparing for his first solo show in Paris, Dorian lets us peek into his creative mind. This episode has been recorded at his atelier located at Villa Mais d’Ici in Aubervilliers, in the North suburbs of Paris (France).


Born in Paris in 1987, Dorian’s practice started with influences coming from public spaces, architecture and urbanism. Looking for the juxtaposition between the beauty and the unsightly, the artist tries to reveal the pictorial potential of ordinary life through the codes of the classical figurative tradition. At the same time, Dorian shapes his own imaginary places by using synthetic colors, and by creating deeper layers through attentive light effects.

In Dorian’s words, those images ‘appear’ on the surface of the white canvas, framing and spiritually elevating a trivial moment of daily life. Nonetheless, his paintings are not dramatic in the subject, but in the way in which they are carefully composed.

In July 2020, Dorian was working on a new painting that portraits a young worker in the storage of a big food company. Taking inspiration from his personal experience, this work is part of a new series in which the artist opens “the curtains” on unknown characters in the process of doing very uninteresting things. A holy light illuminates partially the face of the guy, while some fruits and veggies drop from the overflowing baskets.

“My characters are normal people, living their life as it is. With my painting, I want to sacralize this ordinary moment in a kind of theatrical way”.

Credits /
Curated by Alessandra Chiericato
Recorded: July 2020
Published: July 2020
Music: Roberto Farina
Editing: Alessandra Chiericato
Photo Credits: The Room Projects