Frédéric Gracia

Frédéric Gracia (born 1959, in Paris) is a French artist, who is known for his trompe-l'œil murals, often in a hyperrealistic style and often on large exterior surfaces such as water towers and industrial chimneys. He calls himself a peintre-alpiniste (climber-painter) because he uses rope access techniques such as rappelling to create large outdoor murals.

Early work After studies in the decorative arts and a short period working as an illustrator in a graphics design studio, Gracia began his career as a painter working for Club Med as a decorator-scenographer.

In 1986, while travelling in Asia, he painted a fluorescent backdrop for a concert by Chick Corea in Hong Kong. In 2009, his services were suggested as an alternative to an as yet incomplete computer-controlled large-scale printer for the projected decoration of all the dams in Valais, Switzerland, with murals 700 metres wide and 250 metres high.

However, he prefers to work alone, using rope access techniques. He compares the work to spelunking, since the movement is downwards, not upwards as in climbing. for example with his brother Pascal at Treffiagat, and also wall murals, for example at Fontenay-aux-Roses a sepia-tinted mural of a past street scene based on an archival photograph, "like a wink at the passage of time."

An example of interior trompe-l'œil work is his decoration of toilet rooms in residences as the command station of a submarine or a space exploration vehicle.

In 2000, from a field of 22,000 artists representing 51 countries, Gracia was selected as one of five award-winners from France in the Winsor and Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition sponsored by Winsor & Newton and the Prince of Wales. His painting Blue World was included in a worldwide touring exhibition which began at St James's Palace and ended at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Arts and Sciences in Limousin: Town Hall, Aubusson