Though trained as a painter, until 2002 Michel Guyon earned his living exclusively as a set-designer for European opera houses, keeping his painting a well-guarded secret. He went public with his works only when he felt fully satisfied that they captured all the passion, opulence, and dazzling spectacle of the operas that inspired them. In August 2002, Guyon's inaugural exhibit, which took place in Nantes, France, sold out in three weeks. Two Voices represents his North American debut.


As a complement to Guyon’s incandescent operatic tableaux, Two Voices also features new and vintage works by Laurent Schkolnyk, widely regarded as his generation’s most accomplished and innovative mezzotint artist.

Since he left the practice of medicine in the late-1980s, Schkolnyk has had over 40 solo shows on four continents. His exquisitely subtle and captivating mezzotints are in museum collections in both France and the U.S.

"The mezzotint engraver hunts for shadows. He dives deeply in the darkness to bring out gleaming and thrilling visions. With his rocker [a tool used to prepare the copper-plate matrix], Schkolnyk obstinately carves the copper for hours and hours, creating with his own hands this velvet dark, this original night, which contains all potential hues."

The Art of Laurent Schkolnyk
Claude Bouret
Curator of Prints
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris