The Storytelling Art Institute champions a new direction: contemporary painting driven by narrative and enriched by the codes of cinema and comics.

Promoting a new direction for contemporary painting

Explore the Storytelling Art Universe

About the Institute

Restoring meaning and narrative to contemporary painting

The Storytelling Art Institute is a cultural organization dedicated to the promotion and development of a new path for contemporary painting. Founded on a simple principle - to reconcile the pictorial tradition with modern narrative languages - the Institute brings together artists, institutions, collectors and researchers committed to the defense of demanding painting, based on narrative, drawing and matter.
Through research, dissemination and training programs, we support artistic projects that explore the fusion between painting, comics, cinema and literature, with the ambition of placing the painted image at the heart of contemporary narratives. This revolutionary approach is perfectly illustrated by the pictorial universe of Marc Ferrero, creator of the Storytelling Art movement. Over 180 works make up this unique artistic saga.

The Storytelling Art Institute supports and promotes initiatives that reinvent contemporary painting through narrative and the fusion of visual languages.

What grounds our commitment

Return to the pictorial tradition (oil painting, drawing, composition)

We place oil painting, drawing, and the art of composition at the heart of our approach. In a landscape often dominated by conceptual or decorative approaches, we advocate a return to the fundamentals of gesture, material, and visual construction. This requirement is not nostalgic; on the contrary, it aims to restore painting to its full expressive power. We are convinced that true modernity draws its strength from mastering traditions, and that a meaningful image can only arise from the meeting of technical rigor and artistic ambition.

Fusion of contemporary visual languages (comics, cinema, graphic novel)

The Institute promotes a style of painting capable of engaging with the narrative forms of our time. Storytelling Art thus integrates the codes of cinema (framing, editing, rhythm), comics, and graphic novels (sequentiality, recurring characters, visual temporality) in order to renew the expressive potential of painting. This fusion is not a matter of quotation or pastiche; it constitutes a hybrid language, designed to tell stories differently and enrich painting with a fully contemporary narrative dimension.

Narrative and storytelling as drivers of modernity

The Institute considers narrative not as a simple addition to the image, but as a true driver of modernity. In a world saturated with visuals, Storytelling Art seeks to restore meaning to the act of looking by proposing strong narrative structures, characters carrying symbols, and coherent universes. Narrative allows painting to regain its place in contemporary debate by becoming a means of questioning reality, transmitting ideas, and engaging the viewer in an active experience.

The Institute of Storytelling Art promotes, develops, and transmits a narrative approach to contemporary painting.

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Because we offer a demanding and visionary alternative to the contemporary artistic landscape

Between pictorial tradition and contemporary narration

Fusing painting, narrative, and modern visual languages to create new narrative forms

Mastery of pictorial traditions

The Institute relies on the rigor of drawing, the technique of oil painting, and the principles of composition inherited from the masters to guarantee a solid and demanding foundation for all its actions.

Fusion of contemporary visual languages

We integrate the narrative codes of cinema, comics, and graphic novels in order to develop a hybrid pictorial language that is fully adapted to the visual challenges of our time.

Narrative as a driver of modernity

We consider narration as an essential tool for restoring meaning to the contemporary image. Each work, each project supported by the Institute aims to engage the viewer in an active visual experience, structured like a true narrative.

What people are saying

« The Institute of Storytelling Art brings a rare and essential vision to the contemporary landscape. By placing narration and painting at the heart of its approach, it opens up new artistic perspectives and offers a demanding framework for institutions and creators who wish to reconnect with meaning and emotion. »
— Head of cultural programming, Partner Foundation

« As a collector, I am particularly sensitive to the approach of the Institute of Storytelling Art: it is not simply an aesthetic movement, but a true refounding of contemporary painting. The ability to blend tradition and narration opens up a new field that restores depth and emotional power to the work. »
— Private collector

« When I founded Storytelling Art more than thirty years ago, my ambition was to reconcile painting with narrative and emotion. Today, the Institute carries this ambition beyond my personal work: it makes it an open, collective, and forward-looking platform. This is an essential step in permanently establishing this approach in the contemporary artistic landscape. »
— Marc Ferrero, founder of Storytelling Art

Ready to support the return of a true contemporary painting, driven by narrative?

« Join the Institute and participate in the renewal of narrative in contemporary painting »

Call to Action