Our friend Marc Choko is – aside from being charming, knowledgeable, and very, very soignée in a totally French way – immensely talented. He’s written innumerable books about posters and poster designers, he taught for decades at Montreal’s UQAM, and he manages to put on outstanding poster exhibitions almost every year. (We don’t know where he finds the energy for all this, but that’s another matter…)

This year, the artist Marc chose to celebrate – and that really is the right word – is French poster artist Michel Bouvet. Bouvet, who I had the occasion to meet a few years ago in his light and spacious Parisian studio, is prolific, humble, funny, and blessed with enormous skill. His posters often incorporate large amounts of text (he has created a library of fonts in conjunction with his work in poster design) with photography and other mixed media. I don’t think it would be wrong to call him one of the greatest living contemporary poster artists around anywhere. (To see a fabulous video of Michel at work, go here).

The vernissage was preceded by a lecture given in French and filled with slides of Bouvet’s work, including an insightful look into how he creates his posters – the extensive research he conducts, the client consultations, the work he does with printers to ensure that the finished product looks exactly as the maquette did…

I found him as fascinating as his posters – and just as approachable. A wonderful evening and a great exhibition. The exhibition is open until November 3, for more information, go here.

For other videos about Michel go here.