Nicole Peyrafitte (born June 18, 1960) is a French-born American multidisciplinary artist based as of 2024 in Brooklyn, New York. Her work includes painting, action painting, writing, film, video, music, and cooking, which draws upon her eclectic history and the experiences of shaping identity across two continents (Europe and the United States) and four languages (French, Occitan, Spanish, English). Her performances often include food cooked live and served to the audience.
Biography
Early life Nicole Peyrafitte was born in Luchon (French Pyrenees) into the fifth generation of a family of restaurateurs, and received her early cooking training from her grandfather Joseph Peyrafitte, a renowned chef. Later she perfected her skills, interning at several award-winning restaurants in France. Her father was Jean Peyrafitte Fr (1922–2017), who represented Haute-Garonne in the Pyrenees in the French Fifth Republic (1989–1998).
Move to United States and early career She moved to the United States in 1987, where she developed her career as a collagist, painter, action-painter, singer, poet and filmmaker.
She lived first in Encinitas, California, where she met her husband, poet Pierre Joris. From 1992 through 2007, for 15 years, she lived in Albany, New York.
Career Peyrafitte had only a limited formal art training – two painting courses in the early 1990s with painter and friend Dawn Clements – but has been practicing yoga, bicycling and kayaks, all activities linked to her art.
Peyrafitte's work has been presented nationally and internationally. In New York, she has performed in venues such as The Poetry Project, Zinc Bar, Bowery Poetry Club, Borough of Manhattan Community College, The Vision Festival, Poets House and upstate New York at Bard College, and numerous locations in and around Albany.
Her work has been shown in many other venues around the United States, including San Francisco State University, University of California, San Diego, Berkshire Community College, the Walker Art Institute, The Kelly Writers' House at the University of Pennsylvania, Boise State University, and Naropa University as artist/teacher in residence.
Internationally, her work has been performed or exhibited at Birkbeck College, the University of London, the University of Edinburgh, Université de Bordeaux, Festival les Voix de la Méditerranée, CCA Glasgow, ENSA Limoges, Musée Soulage Rodez, Jardin des Cinq Sens et des Formes Premières, Festival Internacional de las Letras de San Luis Potosí, and Encuentro Internacional de Performance en Durango.
Her visual art works are part of the permanent collections of the Musée Paul Valerie Sète, Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art Luxembourg, Bibliothèque du Luxembourg, Glasgow Women's Library Museum, and the National Literature Centre of Luxembourg.
Personal life She has lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn since 2007 with her husband, poet Pierre Joris. She has two sons: colorist and producer Joseph Mastantuono and director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte.
Performances
Karstic Actions Since 2011, Nicole Peyrafitte has been working on an open-ended series of live performances which brings together her interests, preoccupations, and practices. The KARSTIC-Action Paintings explore proprioception (sense of body position) and kinesthesia (sense of body movement) as meeting points between painting, poetry, voice, and improvised music. Following her intuition, Peyrafitte investigates the thin line between her consciousness and unconsciousness, with a strong desire to reveal the immediate soul of that moment. Most often the markings on canvas are done with the feet, either in hand-stand or head-stand; each of these events is unique. Her "Action Paintings" have been showcased at the Galerie Simoncini in Luxembourg, at the Salon Zürcher in New York, and are part of the public collections of Musée Paul Valerie Sète, Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art Luxembourg, Bibliothèque du Luxembourg, Glasgow Women's Library Museum and Centre de National Literature du Luxembourg.
Selected performances and collaborations
Domopoetics : Nicole Peyrafitte and her collaborator and husband Pierre Joris show and perform together a series named Domopoetics Work at Galerie Simoncini in Luxembourg. The first Domopoetic exhibition was presented in 2017 under the name "Peyrafitte/Joris Domopoetic Works". In 2021, a second exhibition named "Travaux/Actions Karstiques" took place. Trialogues : In 2019 Nicole Peyrafitte, Pierre Joris and Michaël Bisio formed an ongoing collaboration between three protagonists dedicated to their chosen mode of expression: Joris to his nomadic poetry; Peyrafitte to her nourishing, sensual, and campy singing, spoken word, and live painting; and Bisio playing his double bass. It was featured at the Vision Festival XV. Collaboration with Betsy Damon for her performance Listen, Respect, Revere. Collaboration with Anne Waldman as a special guest for Trickster Feminism Collaboration with Anne Waldman in the play Artaud in the Black Lodge
Exhibitions Selected solo exhibitions "Travaux/Actions Karstiques", Galerie Simoncini, Luxembourg, 2021 "Peyrafitte/Joris Domopoetic Works", Galerie Simoncini, Luxembourg, 2017 Orgaginal, solo art show & concert at Maison, Luchon, France, 2016 The Bi-Continental Chowder at Firlefanz Gallery, Albany, 2007.An act with taste by Greg Haymes in Times Union, 02/15/2007
Selected group exhibitions "Women and Other Wild Creatures: Matrilineal Tales", a group exhibition of women artists who draw strength from the connection with their non-human nature, healing practices, and visions of human unity with nature. The show was curated by Nina Levent at Sapar Contemporary, New York City, June 3, 2022- August 26, 2022 (Extended). Salon Zürcher "The 11 Women of Spirit, Part 1" New-York March 2020, more details here “Sun of a Beach 2” group show curated by Denis Brun at OÙ & Galerie Paradis, Marseille, France, 2015More info on Denis Brun's website Waltzing in Quicksand: Poets in Collage, curated by Bruce Weber at A Gathering of the Tribes, 2010Waltzing in Quicksand: Poets in Collage, A Gathering of the Tribes, 2010 The Mohawk–Hudson Regional Invitational at The Albany Center Gallery
Films and videos
"Be Like Water" Karstic Action "Karstic Action : I de-suffice myself in confinement" for burnt video art and experimental film festival, 2020 Paul Celan by Pierre Joris: A Reading Robert Kelly: A Celebration Things Fall Where They Lie (2018).Things Fall Where They Lie (2018), IMDb page Things Fall Where They Lie premiered at Anthology Film Archive in September 2020. Pierre Joris Flash Interviews #1 to #6Pierre Joris Flash Interviews #1 to #6 by Nicole Peyrafitte & Colchique (2016-2017)Pierre Joris' translation of Paul Celan poem: Erinnerung an Frankreich/Remembrance of France, concept/video/editing & singing by Nicole Peyrafitte Basil King: Mirage, co-directed with Miles Joris-Peyrafitte on painter, poet & Black Mountain student Basil King (2012).Basil King: Mirage (2012), IMDb page You LieYou Lie by Paul Celan, translated and read by Pierre Joris, filming, editing and sound by Nicole Peyrafitte & Anhalter BahnhofPoems by Paul Celan, translated and read by Pierre Joris, filming, editing and sound by Nicole Peyrafitte for “Celan/Joris 50 years of translation” (2012)
Publications Books and chapbooks Connection en Mille-Feuille (RedfoxPress, 2022) Carnet 2 (RedfoxPress Ireland, 2018) Landsc0pes (Plaine Page, 2018) Book of U Poems / Le livre des Cormorans, poems by Pierre Joris and drawings by Nicole Peyrafitte (Galerie Simoncini Editions, 2017) Liminal Line (Editions les Venterniers, 2016) Bi-Valve: Vulvic Space / Vulvic Knowledge (Stockport Flats, 2013 & Plaine Page, 2016) Carnet (RedfoxPress Ireland, 2014) Ride the Line / The Calendar / Hommage à la Vénus de Lespugue, 3 chapbooks by Ta’wil Press (1997)
Magazine and anthologies publications Periodico de Poesia- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Jan 2021) The A-LINE Journal (Nov 2020) Time of Poet Republic (2020) Le Chant de la Sirène (2020) Voice of Trees (2020) World Literature Today 2019 Conversation in the Pyrenees 2019 Junction Box 2019 The Café Review 2019 LiveMag! #15 2018 Teste 32 2018 Voix Vives de La Méditerranée en Méditerranée 2018 Peinture & Poesie Musée Paul Valéry 2018 Requiem for Gaza 2018 Solidarity Texts —2017 Revue GPS — 2016 Supplement — 2016 ( Kelly Writers House) Folder Silhouette — 2015 Mary Reed and ses Acolytes – Invece No. 1 2013 Theory, A Sunday 2013 Bombay Gin #39.2 2013 —Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado Aufgabe 2013 #12 Extract of Bi-Valve —Litmus Press, NYC Anthologie des Voix Vives: Festival de Poésie de Sète France 2013 Jacket2 Jerome Rothenberg's: Poem & poetics blog 2013 — Extract of Bi-Valve in Some Stories are True That Never Happened, an anthology by Erika Lutzner 2012 Emergency INDEX 2011 - Ugly Duckling Presse Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-Between ed. Peter Cockelberg - Litteraria Pragensia The Portable Boog Reader 3, an instant anthology of New York City poetry 2010; Invisible Culture: An electronic Journal for Visual Culture. Rochester University; Anthology des Voix de la Méditerranée Lodève 2008 Revue du Comminges 2008: Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Grand maître de la sculpture américaine, fils de Bernard Saint-Gaudens né à Aspet en 1816 Effing Magazine #2, 2004 The Healing Muse Journal of Literary & Visual Arts -Center for Bioethics & Humanities State University of New York Footballs No7 Art action / Montagne Froide — France
Translations Occitan to English Bernat Manciet, Ode to James Dean, Mindmade Books, 2014 Marcella Delpastre & Bernat Manciet selections for Jacket 2, 2014
French to English Cesar Vallejo, La Mort, co-translated with Pierre Joris, Wesleyan University Press, 2015Selected Writings of César Vallejo, Wesleyan University Press Nicole Brossard, "Wildly", in Theory, A Sunday, Belladonna, 2013 Matoub Lounes, "Kenza" & Mustapha Benfodil, "I Conned Myself on a Levantine Day" in The University of California Book of North African Literature, edited by Pierre Joris & Habib Tengour, UCP, 2012The Book of North African Literature: Pierre Joris on Poetry and Miscegenation by Orlando Read for Africa is a Country, 12/05/2013
English to French Pierre Joris, The Book of U / Le livre des Cormorans, Editions Galerie Simoncini, 2017 Jerome Rothenberg/Ian Tyson: Delight/Délices et autre Gematria Ottezec Press, 1997 George Quasha and Charles Stein, Gary Hill: HanD HearD/Liminal Objects, Station Hill Press of Barrytown, 1997George Quasha and Charles Stein, Gary Hill: HanD HearD/Liminal Objects, Station Hill Press of Barrytown
Discography Bi-Valve (Plaine Page, 2015)Bi-Valve, Plaine Page, 2015 Whisk! Don't Churn! with Michael Bisio (Ta'wil Productions, 2009)Whisk! Don’t Churn! Nicole Peyrafitte and Michael Bisio, Ta'wil Productions, Discogs Sax Soup Poetry & Voice w/ Pierre Joris & Joe Giardullo (Sanctuary for Independent Media Productions, 2007)Sax Soup Poetry & Voice, The Sanctuary for Independent Media The Bi-Continental Chowder (Ta'wil Productions, 2006)The Bi-Continental Chowder, Ta'wil Productions, cdbaby
Awards and honors Best Performance Art Venue: Times Union · Best of 2006 · The top choices in the capital region Nicole Peyrafitte's Experimental Cabaret at Tess’ Lark Tavern.Times Union review available on Nicole Peyrafitte' official website Best Performance Artist: Times Union · Best of 2005 · The top choices in the capital region.
Reviews