{"id":363628,"date":"2025-12-23T11:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/363628\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:03:16","slug":"nicolas-grospierres-velvet-heliograms-are-made-by-months-of-direct-sun-exposure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/363628\/","title":{"rendered":"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nicolas Grospierre renders sunlight visible in Heliograms<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Polish-French artist Nicolas Grospierre presents Heliograms, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/photography\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">photography<\/a>-adjacent series currently on show in the Salle de Salomon at the Royal \u0141azienki Palace in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designboom.com\/tag\/architecture-in-poland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Warsaw<\/a>, on view until August 30, 2026. The project, also presented at the Paris Photo Fair at Grand Palais, centers on a singular technique: images formed not by camera, lens, or chemical development, but through the direct, months-long exposure of velvet to sunlight. Created both in the countryside of northern Poland and, for this exhibition, directly on site at the historic palace, the works reveal how the sun itself becomes a recording instrument.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168843 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-01.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Heliograms in the Salle de Salomon, Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>solar light shapes velvet into delicate images<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the core of the process is a deliberately minimal setup. Sheets of velvet are masked with constructed forms or architectural silhouettes and then placed outdoors for four to five months. Over time, ultraviolet radiation gradually bleaches the textile, allowing an image to emerge through slow chromatic change. While <a href=\"https:\/\/nicolasgrospierre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Polish-French artist<\/a> determines the orientation, mask, and duration of exposure, the outcome remains partly unpredictable. Light intensity, shifting weather, and micro-variations in the environment contribute to a result that is guided yet never fully controlled.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This interplay between precision and contingency gives Nicolas Grospierre\u2019s Heliograms their ambiguous aesthetic, poised between photography and painting. They follow a photographic logic (images produced by exposure) yet sidestep its familiar apparatus. Instead of capturing a moment, each work grows into the fabric, its contours shaped by atmospheric conditions. The resulting forms often appear like soft halos, spectral silhouettes, or faint architectures, suggesting presence through absence.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168844 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-02.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Heliograms in the Salle de Salomon, Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A slow dialogue between light and fabric at Royal \u0141azienki Palace<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Conceptually, the series foregrounds a direct material encounter with the sun, a force vast, distant, and immeasurable at the human scale. The works do not portray this star but index its physical contact, marking the passage of time and the exposure of a vulnerable surface to an overwhelming energy. The gesture becomes both scientific and poetic: an attempt to register something that far exceeds human control.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the Royal \u0141azienki Palace, originally the Enlightenment-era summer residence of King Stanis\u0142aw August Poniatowski, Grospierre created two new site-specific Heliograms, aligning the process with an architectural context historically shaped by ideas of light as clarity, order, and knowledge. Installed in the Salle de Salomon, the works enter into conversation with a space designed around the interplay of structure, landscape, and illumination. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168848 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-10.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Heliograms in the Salle de Salomon, Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168845 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-03.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Heliograms in the Salle de Salomon, Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168847 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-06.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Heliograms in the Salle de Salomon, Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168846 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"1091\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-05.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre and Heliograms in the Salle de Salomon, Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1170883 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"1091\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-20.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre and Heliograms in Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw, 2025 (exhibition view)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168850 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-15.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre, Heliogram (Cerulean Clouded Moon), 2025, Velvet, oak frame, 90 x 100 x 7 cm<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168849 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-12.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre, Heliogram (Red Planet), 2025, Velvet, oak frame, 90 x 100 x 7 cm<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1168863 lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"1023\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-gallery-12-1.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre, Heliogram (Golden Sun Blade), 2025, Velvet, oak frame, 150 x 125 x 8 cm<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1168860 lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-gallery-03-1.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre, Heliogram (Crimson Twin Vanishing Gradient), 2025, Velvet, oak frame, 90 x 100 x 7 cm<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1168862 lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-gallery-06-1.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre, Heliogram (Harmonic Regression), 2023, Velvet, oak frame, 90 x 100 x 7 cm<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1168852 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt=\"nicolas grospierre\u2019s velvet heliograms are made by months of direct sun exposure\" width=\"818\" height=\"710\" src=\"https:\/\/static.designboom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sunlight-draws-images-nicolas-grospierre-velvet-heliograms-designboom-gallery-05.jpg\"  data- loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>Nicolas Grospierre, Heliogram (Haloed Nebula), 2023, Velvet, oak frame, 90 x 100 x<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> project info:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> name: Heliograms<br \/>artist: <a href=\"https:\/\/nicolasgrospierre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nicolas Grospierre<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ngrospierre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">@ngrospierre<\/a><br \/>location: Royal \u0141azienki Palace, Warsaw<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Grospierre renders sunlight visible in Heliograms \u00a0 Polish-French artist Nicolas Grospierre presents Heliograms, a photography-adjacent series currently&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,10000],"class_list":{"0":"post-363628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-photography"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}