“I have lived everywhere. Which is to say, never quite in one place.
I learned lacquer. Then lacquer came for my skin. So I remade it. Without it.
There is a circle in my paintings. People think it doesn’t move. Not that. It holds.
It is me. Perhaps it is us, too.”
Claire Lassonnery
CV
CLAIRE LASSONNERY
French contemporary artist
Lives and works between La Baule, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Education and Training
1992 – Doctorate in Pharmacy, Lyon, France
2016–2020 – Studies in the art of lacquer with Master Bao, Saigon, Vietnam
Solo Exhibitions
2026 – Mute, Alliance Française de Penang, Malaysia, 17 April–11 June 2026
2025–2026 – Suspended Between Two Worlds, Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 6 November 2025–6 January 2026
2024 – Abstract Claire, NGS, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, January 2024
Group Exhibitions
2026 – 1 Hall 1 Artiste, Île Feydeau, Nantes, France, 20 September 2026 — forthcoming
2025–2026 – Her Living Legacy, Artitude Galeria, Singapore, 11 December 2025–11 January 2026
2025 – Malay Vibrations, WL Art Gallery, Malaysia, 4 June–1 October 2025
2024 – Méditerranée, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, 26–28 July 2024
Critical Texts
2025 – Text by Quentin Métayer
2024 – Text by Nathalie Gallon, AICA, Paris
Press
2026 – Article by Meghane Mathieu, La Gazette de Kuala Lumpur
2024 – Article by Eleonor Morrin, La Gazette de Kuala Lumpur
Collections
Private collections in Asia and Europe.
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Over the past three decades, Claire Lassonnery has lived in nine countries across Europe and Asia. “I have lived everywhere. Which is to say, never quite in one place,” says Claire Lassonnery. This itinerant life informs a painting practice shaped by patience, displacement, and adjustment. Climates change, rhythms reverse, and cultures intermingle.
The ground of each canvas is built up through successive layers of pigment, lacquer, and oil, each corresponding to a territory through which she has passed. Their translucency allows earlier layers to remain visible beneath later ones. Through this process of layering, Claire Lassonnery seeks movement above all: the material slips, transforms, and allows earlier layers to emerge. Then comes an act of erasure: scraping back, stripping away, and sanding down. The surface is reworked again and again, never entirely erased, until it reaches its final state.
The circle is the first form she places on the canvas. Matter then gathers around it. The tension between matter and the circle is a constant negotiation. “There is a circle in my paintings. People think it doesn’t move. Not that. It holds. It is me. Perhaps it is us, too,” she says. The circle thus gives form to what remains when everything shifts.
“What I paint is this tension: how to preserve a sense of self when everything is in motion, when we are constantly in friction with other worlds. We change, we transform, we wear down a little, yet we remain ourselves,” says Claire Lassonnery.
BIO
Born in France, Claire Lassonnery currently lives and works between La Baule, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She holds a doctorate in pharmacy and began her career in the French pharmaceutical industry before relocating to Asia. Over the past three decades, she has lived in nine countries across Europe and Asia. It was in Japan, in 2008, that she first encountered lacquer.
This decisive encounter stayed with her over the years and gradually led her to devote herself to an artistic practice. From 2016 to 2020, she studied the art of lacquer with Master Bao in Saigon, Vietnam.
When an allergy forced her to abandon traditional lacquer, she drew on her scientific training to reformulate her materials and develop a pictorial language of her own.
Her work has been exhibited publicly since 2024. Her solo exhibitions include Suspended Between Two Worlds at Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur (2025–2026) and Mute at Alliance Française de Penang (2026). She has also participated in group exhibitions in Singapore and Monaco, and will take part in 1 Hall 1 Artiste on Île Feydeau, Nantes, in September 2026.
Her work has been the subject of critical texts by Quentin Métayer and Nathalie Gallon (AICA — International Association of Art Critics). Her works are held in private collections in Asia and Europe.
Born in France, Claire Lassonnery currently lives and works between La Baule, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She holds a doctorate in pharmacy and began her career in the French pharmaceutical industry before relocating to Asia. Over the past three decades, she has lived in nine countries across Europe and Asia. It was in Japan, in 2008, that she first encountered lacquer.
This decisive encounter stayed with her over the years and gradually led her to devote herself to an artistic practice. From 2016 to 2020, she studied the art of lacquer with Master Bao in Saigon, Vietnam.
When an allergy forced her to abandon traditional lacquer, she drew on her scientific training to reformulate her materials and develop a pictorial language of her own.
Her work has been exhibited publicly since 2024. Her solo exhibitions include Suspended Between Two Worlds at Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur (2025–2026) and Mute at Alliance Française de Penang (2026). She has also participated in group exhibitions in Singapore and Monaco, and will take part in 1 Hall 1 Artiste on Île Feydeau, Nantes, in September 2026.
Her work has been the subject of critical texts by Quentin Métayer and Nathalie Gallon (AICA — International Association of Art Critics). Her works are held in private collections in Asia and Europe.
Over the past three decades, Claire Lassonnery has lived in nine countries across Europe and Asia. “I have lived everywhere. Which is to say, never quite in one place,” says Claire Lassonnery. This itinerant life informs a painting practice shaped by patience, displacement, and adjustment. Climates change, rhythms reverse, and cultures intermingle.
The ground of each canvas is built up through successive layers of pigment, lacquer, and oil, each corresponding to a territory through which she has passed. Their translucency allows earlier layers to remain visible beneath later ones. Through this process of layering, Claire Lassonnery seeks movement above all: the material slips, transforms, and allows earlier layers to emerge. Then comes an act of erasure: scraping back, stripping away, and sanding down. The surface is reworked again and again, never entirely erased, until it reaches its final state.
The circle is the first form she places on the canvas. Matter then gathers around it. The tension between matter and the circle is a constant negotiation. “There is a circle in my paintings. People think it doesn’t move. Not that. It holds. It is me. Perhaps it is us, too,” she says. The circle thus gives form to what remains when everything shifts.
“What I paint is this tension: how to preserve a sense of self when everything is in motion, when we are constantly in friction with other worlds. We change, we transform, we wear down a little, yet we remain ourselves,” says Claire Lassonnery.
CLAIRE LASSONNERY
French contemporary artist
Lives and works between La Baule, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Education and Training
1992 – Doctorate in Pharmacy, Lyon, France
2016–2020 – Studies in the art of lacquer with Master Bao, Saigon, Vietnam
Solo Exhibitions
2026 – Mute, Alliance Française de Penang, Malaysia, 17 April–11 June 2026
2025–2026 – Suspended Between Two Worlds, Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 6 November 2025–6 January 2026
2024 – Abstract Claire, NGS, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, January 2024
Group Exhibitions
2026 – 1 Hall 1 Artiste, Île Feydeau, Nantes, France, 20 September 2026 — forthcoming
2025–2026 – Her Living Legacy, Artitude Galeria, Singapore, 11 December 2025–11 January 2026
2025 – Malay Vibrations, WL Art Gallery, Malaysia, 4 June–1 October 2025
2024 – Méditerranée, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, 26–28 July 2024
Critical Texts
2025 – Text by Quentin Métayer
2024 – Text by Nathalie Gallon, AICA, Paris
Press
2026 – Article by Meghane Mathieu, La Gazette de Kuala Lumpur
2024 – Article by Eleonor Morrin, La Gazette de Kuala Lumpur
Collections
Private collections in Asia and Europe.