Fabien Mérelle was born in 1981 in Fontenay-sous-Bois, France. He lives and works in Tours and Paris, France.

Following an artist residency grant in 2005, Mérelle studied at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in China. He graduated in 2006 from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. This trans-global opportunity allowed Mérelle to explore and refine alternative Eastern drawing techniques, such as Chinese ink, laying the groundwork for his distinctive sharp lines and anatomical precision, reminiscent of Albrecht Dürer’s drypoint engravings. Upon returning to the West, Mérelle completed a residency at the prestigious Casa Velázquez in Madrid.

Mérelle’s drawings and sculptures immerse us, often with irony, into a fantastical world of dreamlike, hybrid figures that blend the human and animal realms. His intimate works, marked by ultra-realism and whimsy, draw inspiration both from the world around him and his emotional landscape. His burlesque compositions often mock the artist’s inner turmoil without diminishing its weight: Mérelle’s visual and linguistic allegories serve as an outlet for channeling emotions and taming fears. The unsettling white background of his drawings only heightens their ever-present fantastical realism.

Mérelle’s work has earned several accolades, including the Sanofi Art Prize (2014), the Canson Prize (2010), and the Casa Velázquez residency award (2007), to name just a few. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Wilde (Geneva, Switzerland) and CCC OD (Tours, France). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Tübingen (Germany), Le Havre (France), the Contemporary Art Center Les Tanneries (Amilly, France), the Mesdag Collection (The Hague, Netherlands), Mu.ZEE (various locations, Belgium), the Drawing Center (New York, USA), the MNAM – Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), and Art Bärtschi & Cie, now Wilde (Geneva, Switzerland). His works are part of the collection of the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation (Paris, France).