Catherine Villermé

Catherine Villermé spent a large part of her youth in Africa—a period that left a lasting mark on her. A graduate in History, she benefited from an education that structured her intellectually, but the practice of painting led her to discover herself. In 2015, a decisive meeting convinced her to fully dedicate herself to painting. At the end of 2021, Catherine applied to an international exhibition, the first step towards exhibition circuits. She received the Senate medal in 2024. The artist paints in the studio, slowly, through successive iterations, landscapes that she recomposes from fragments of memory, photographed images then forgotten, emotions of which only the texture remains. For her, memory is a living material that light traverses, fractures, reveals. What interests her is not the faithful memory but what persists after forgetfulness: the light traces, the muted atmospheres, the suspended moment between what has been and what has dissolved. The artist is currently developing a pictorial autofiction. Her painting is an attempt to reveal what her memories have hidden from her. Catherine Villermé has exhibited alone at the Rive de Loire gallery in Ancenis (in 2026 and 2024) and at La Maison Bonchamps in La Basse Meilleraie (in 2025). The artist participates in numerous exhibitions. She will be at the Salon de l’Ecole française in Versailles in September 2026.