M HKA Ensembles

° 1975

Born in Douala (CM), lives in FR.

Gregory Forstner was born in Douala, Cameroon, to a French mother and an Austrian father. At the age of eleven, he was spotted by Luc Besson to play the role of Enzo Molinari in The Big Blue. At fifteen, he spent a year in two host families in Key West, Florida, a journey that left a profound impression on him. After that experience, he interrupted his secondary studies and left for Austria on the trail of his paternal origins. In Vienna he met Christian Ludwig Attersee, who invited him to work in his studio at the academy of applied arts (Hochschule für angewandte Kunst). The following year, he attended the Villa Arson, École Nationale Superieure d’Art de Nice. After graduating, he finished his studies with a short stay at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. From 2013, he started to publish his writing with the publishing houses Derrière la Salle de Bains and Littérature Mineure. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (ARC), Musée de Grenoble, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de Nice (MAMAC), FNAC (Fonds National d’Art Contemporain), FRAC (Fonds R.gional d’Art Contemporain) Haute-Normandie, FRAC Basse-Normandie, FRAC Alsace, SACEM collection, Fondation Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon in Annecy, Fondation Bernard Massini in Nice, Richard J. Massey Foundation in New York, TIA Collection in the United States, and Sammlung Goetz in Munich.

In 2008, Gregory Forstner won a scholarship from the French Ministry of Culture for a one-year residency in New York with Triangle Arts association. He Lived in New York for 10 years and relocated in summer 2018 to the south of France.