Born in Nice in 1984, C.Lions resided for several years in various countries such as France, The United States, Ireland and Italy - developing this idea of an open world and an urge to keep discovering it. She is currently living and working in Belgium near Brussels.
Her work focuses on nautical cartography covering the 15th and 16th century, epoch of the great explorers. For C.Lions, it reveals the quintessence of their journeys without return; of adventures towards fantasized unknown lands only possible in our dreams nowadays. She wants to bring forward this imaginary world and the fears emanating from these mysterious countries crammed with fantastic monsters within a context accessible to everybody.
She is electing and subtly revisiting ancient nautical charts called "portolans" so as to stimulate our collective unconscious. Using as back support ancient wooden planks similar to middle age ship’s hatch coverings, C.Lions offers a play between matter and relief, a symbiosis between mistreated wood and design, unveiling alternatively an appearance of time tear and wear.
The peculiar gloss of her paintings is made with a mix of acrylic paint, gouache and ink. The map then turns alive and seems to be ready to disclose narratives of journeys it witnessed long ago. Precision of details are particularly enhanced by the choice of painting on large format.
Whoever peruses the works of C.Lions will feel himself wandering away for a few moments through the different levels of interpretation offered to him.