Anaïs Charras

Paris, France, 1984

‘Discovering engraving was a defining and liberating moment for me as a self-taught artist. I trained in this demanding technique alongside Florence Hinneburg at the Ateliers de la Ville de Paris. The high level of precision and rigorous process involved in this practice opened up a new field of expression with endless possibilities.

Transition, passage and disappearance are the common threads that weave together the universe of my work. Each new piece takes its place in a chronological chain, like episodes in a grand narrative. My characters must undergo a series of trials, pass through many states, and experience myriad sensations before they are permitted to cross over to the other side.

When I conceive an image, I begin with sensations. Pulling, pushing, surging, escaping, yielding… I welcome my characters as guests to the setting I have planned for them and entrust them with tools and missions. At this stage of the process, I do not yet know them. I meet my characters when the chisel or tip begins to trace their faces, expressions and gazes. Their bodies become mirrors of remorse, wanderings and scars from the past; successive layers of learning. They then leave behind the idea I had formed of them and become who they really are. Until the final test, I must negotiate the construction of my narrative alongside these new friends and their attitudes.

I was born in Paris in 1984, and I still live and work there. Before acquiring an intaglio press in 2020 and setting up my own workshop at home, I was a member of the Arquebusiers engraving workshop and the Sfumato workshop in Montreuil.”

Portrait of artist Anaïs Charras in her studio. Photographer: Anne-Cécile Causse

Distinctions

2025 Prix Arts et métiers du Livre
Prix Paul Gonnand, Fondation Taylor, 2025
2024 Nominée au prix GRAVIX
Gravure pour la souscription 2024 de l’association Pointe et Burin, avec André Beuchat
Jill Bullen Memorial Award, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, Londres
Printmakers’ Printmaking Prize, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, Londres
3ème prix au Concours Ex-Libris Rêver le monde en hommage à Hélène Nué, Musée de l’Imprimerie de Nantes
2023 1er prix au Salon de l’Estampe de Gravelines – Gravure en Nord
2022 Prix Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Fondation Taylor
Nominée au prix GRAVIX
2021 Printmaking Today Prize, International Original Print Exhibition, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Londres
2014 Premier prix de peinture au Prix de peinture et de sculpture de Barbizon, académie Jacques Boitiat
2012 Lauréate section « dessin » au XVIIème concours de L’Atelier Z
2011 Prix Albin Eschbach au Salon des Artistes Français

Cultural associations

Membre du Trait – Graveurs d’Aujourd’hui
Membre du comité Pointe et Burin
Membre de la Fondation Taylor
Intervenante en gravure auprès de Paris Ateliers

Group exhibitions

2022
La Seine, 40ème édition « les petits formats », Paris
7th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, Roumanie
Multiples #17, Morlaix (29)
Exposition du prix GRAVIX, Fondation Taylor
Journée de l’estampe contemporaine de Saint Sulpice, Paris (2020 / 2021 / 2022)
Tu, avec Le Trait, graveurs d’aujourd’hui, Fondation Taylor, Paris
Graveurs // Graveuses ! Aiguillage Galerie, Paris
Mini MAXI prints, Berlin (2021/2022)

2021
Macparis, Bastille Design Center, Paris
International Contemporary Engraving Biennial N-E, Iași, Roumanie
International Original Print Exhibition, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Londres
20ème Biennale internationale de la gravure de Sarcelles
2nd International mini print triennial « Intaglio », Kiev

2015 / 2016 / 2017
Salon DDessin, Paris
2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014
Salon des Artistes Français, Paris
2014/ 2015
Académie Jacques Boitiat
2013
Salon d’Automne, Paris
2012
Salon des Indépendants, Lyon

Also available for purchase on the website.