Artist Statement:

I was born in Lille, France in 1978.

In 1994 I met a local artists’ group called ‘Arimage’ in my village who introduced me to the art world.

I had my first job in 1996 working in an art circus called ‘Le Cirque De Mosko’.

I studied Fine Art at les Beaux Arts from 1996 to 2001 in France.

For the first 3 years in art school, we explored the classical techniques and the theory and especially the modern and contemporary fields. We had classes with nude models for painting and sculpture, 12 hours out of 40 per week on the other workshops like photography, video, print making…

Our lessons went from painting copies of Picasso, to listening to amazing characters such as body art master ORLAN or fine film producer Jean-Marie Straub.

I was very interested in performance art and got my first job in Art Management as the Curator Assistant of Madame Pascale Pronier at le Fresnoy (Studio National des Arts Contemporains) for 6 months. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of people on the top of the French pyramid and perform in the prestigious French-international circus called ‘La Compagnie Forraine’ as a ‘Garçon de piste’.

Thereafter graduation in 1999, it was time to learn to speak English and explore London and enrol in an artist in Residence from 2000-2001 researching “Semiotics of Art” at Kensington And Chelsea College, while having a few art exhibitions.

The tutors brought us see the art as a whole industry : curating, teaching, health and safety, meta-philosophy, management and marketing and focus on “international exchanges of culture” which brought me to Mexico and Los Angeles for 3 months, where I started to also learn Spanish.

In Mexico, I worked in two traditional circuses in Tecoman and Tijuana, which brought me to the radio for the first time. I also discovered Mazunte-Zipolite, where I now live some 20 years later.

In California, I was hanging out with a metal rock band called ‘Social Control’, then back to Europe where I started to live in Ibiza and built a reputation as an artist with the most famous night called Manumission and the clubs such as Space and Amnesia.

In 2002, there was a media-technique course that I started at Hackney Community College, but I dropped out after 3 months to produce my own TV (FRENCHTELE) on the local hertzien TV: “Télépovera”. Frenchtele ran for about 5 years, reporting on the Underground and running animations.

In 2004, while working on some erotic project TV reporting, I met a funny crew of french girls called “SCRATCH FOUFOUNES“ and started building teddy Bear themed art pieces which I sold through Apart Gallery in London. Apart is still active and essential in my artist life nowadays in 2022 as a vendor, consultant and collector of my works. The teddy bears project was so successful that I earned the name of Tony Bears and had art exhibitions touring in Japan, Los Angeles, Vegas, Berlin…

In 2007, I conceived the idea of another 3D art piece called Ratatouille, which was a creature I built by recycling and adapting an electronic kid’s toy, which I turned into an abstract painter who spoke French. Ratatouille helped me leave the teddy bear world and we had 4 years of intense performance time in Amsterdam, Paris, London and Barcelona…Ratatouille got me back in action painting for the first time since school.

All these events helped me to interact with lots of shops, bars, clubs and many art galleries.

From 2009 until 2018, I became the so-called “best selling artist of the gallery” at THE GUY HILTON GALLERY said to be “the best gallery in the world”. The Guy Hilton Gallery had an amazing network of well known artists and art collectors. There were lots of artists who had to make a living and there I met a caricaturist called “Sketchum”. He got me back into sketching people, which I hadn’t done since I was 19 outside Le Louvre in Paris.

In 2014 Ibiza was calling again after 10 years away, and so I returned that year and began collaborating with many of my old contacts on the island.

In 2015 I launched “THE MAGIC STONE” comic about life on the island, which mixed hippies and celebrities in a magical and mystical dimensions. The comic was very successful and led to us recording a summer song, which in turn led to us being featured in the famous Spanish playboy magazine Interviù.

In 2016, it was time to create a Spanish identity and I became “Antuan” short for Antonio Botellon.

In 2017 I started a project called Hippiemoney in Ibiza with two friends. The Hippiemoney concept saw us produce actual currency by painting individual bills which were sold individually and became accepted currency on the island in many bars and clubs. Hippiemoney was a big buzz and was featured in many publications and online on social media.

In 2020 I decided to leave Europe because of Brexit and Covid, so I traveled to Sweden, Miami, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Mexico, where I am now trying to raise funds to create an Artist in Residence gallery in Mexico.

More to follow….