Born in 1991 in Colombes, France, Johanna Mirabel is a French artist of French Caribbean descent living and working in Paris. A graduate of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, she has developed a distinctive pictorial language at the intersection of figuration, abstraction and memory.
Drawing on her Guyanese heritage and on Édouard Glissant’s concepts of creolisation and opacity, Mirabel creates paintings in which suspended figures, fragmented architectures and intimate interiors evoke the instability and plurality of identity. Her work explores questions of memory, transmission and cultural experience through a vivid palette marked by deep reds and ochres that recall both the laterite soils of French Guiana and the history of European painting.
Recent projects have expanded these concerns through new materials and forms. In Adieu la chair (Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, 2024), she explored the Guyanese carnival as a metaphor for transformation, while I Wish (Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Brussels, 2025) drew on the tradition of ex-votos and devotional paintings, introducing works on aluminium and copper supports.
Mirabel is the recipient of the CPGA–Étant donnés Prize (2024) and the Villa Albertine residency (2025). Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public and private collections in Europe and the United States.
Artist https://johannamirabel.com/
Galerie Natalie Obadia https://www.nathalieobadia.com/fr/artists/93-johanna-mirabel/overview/
Villa Albertine https://villa-albertine.org/va/fr/residents/johanna-esther-mirabel/
Fondation H https://www.fondation-h.com/exhibitions-fr/residence-de-creation-et-exposition
Connaissance des arts https://www.connaissancedesarts.com/arts-expositions/art-contemporain/les-maisons-mysteres-de-johanna-mirabel-11195472/
Les Frac https://lesfrac.com/item/johanna-mirabel-habiter-le-chaos/
Frac Auvergne https://fracauvergne.fr/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DOSSIER-PEDAGOGIQUE-Johanna-Mirabel.pdf
Centre national des arts plastiques https://www.cnap.fr/johanna-mirabel
Lagora des arts https://lagoradesarts.fr/-Johanna-Mirabel-Habiter-le-chaos-.html
Pulling the Fever Down, 2025
Oil on canvas, oil stick, charcoal, gel medium, image transfer
210 × 300 cm
Image credit: Galerie Nathalie Obadia
White Heat, 2025
Oil on metal, oil stick, charcoal, iridescent metallic pigments
300 × 150 cm
Image credit: Galerie Nathalie Obadia
Sleeping Room #9, 2023
Oil on linen, oil stick
174 × 212 cm
Image credit: Ludovic Combe
Living Room #37, 2023
Oil on linen, oil stick
171 × 214 cm
Image credit: Studio Vanssay
