One of the most sought-after French artists of her generation.
Inès Longevial’s market value continues to soar in step with exhibitions around the world. Her sovereign female figures, bathed in colour, have become her signature. From 22 October, it is in Paris, at Galerie Ketabi Bourdet, that she will unveil a new chapter in this rapidly ascending body of work.
A young woman in a red bodice against a backdrop of vegetation: it is a garden that Inès Longevial speaks to us from, in mid-July. She is on holiday in Spain, and the interview takes place through screens, which form a kind of frame. She herself entered the art world through a window. Born and raised in Agen, the daughter of a hairdresser emerged through Instagram, where her drawings and colourful oil paintings depicting parts of the body and then female faces, mostly self-portraits, quickly found an audience. Today, at 35, she has some 360,000 followers there. In the meantime, Inès Longevial has moved beyond the possibility of being merely a phenomenon fuelled by collaborations with brands, asserting a deeply personal sensibility somewhere between hedonism (addictive colours, both pop, romantic, and girly) and mystery (unfathomable gazes, bodies as fortresses, almost defiant). This work, at once seductive and surprising, changing like a stormy sky, complemented by drawings and poems, opens up a singular path. An interview with an artist who is as restless and inquisitive as her icons.
HARPER’S BAZAAR: What is the theme of your new exhibition, which will take place in October?
INÈS LONGEVIAL: It will be called In Your Pocket.
I have just had a child and was somewhat physically constrained during pregnancy, whereas large formats really require an effort. So I made many small canvases and assembled them, like puzzles. It was a method I had already used and have now developed further. In Your Pocket is the idea of coming to see the exhibition and leaving with a small painting that fits in your pocket.
HB: Has having a child changed anything in your relationship with your work?
IL: I have noticed that, for me, painting says things before they even happen; it announces them. And when I look at my paintings from last year, I can see that a process had already begun. Initially, I did not want a child, but something clicked, and the paintings I made during that period speak of this change. For example, Skin of a Storm, the exhibition I held in New York in 2025, featured many large, expansive portraits of women with their faces turned away, as if falling. Today, they make me think of childbirth, of certain images one might have of that moment. And psychologically too, of that kind of in-between state in which one finds oneself during those hours.
HB: So being an artist and a mother proves compatible, contrary to a persistent cliché?
IL: I was very afraid that it wouldn’t be. Afraid that one would erase the other. That there wouldn’t be enough room for both, that I wouldn’t be able to reconcile the two. And also of being drawn towards convention. The example of Claire Tabouret, who has two children and speaks about it, helped me a lot. And then I’m lucky to work with my partner, who is a musician. We are a duo around this baby too, and since her birth three and a half months ago, I have already been able to paint and spend time in the studio. There has been a change, nonetheless: I notice that in my work, I now get even more straight to the point than before. I am now both patient during my periods of rest and hyper-focused during my periods of work. (...)
