Gilles Olry was born in 1956 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. A self-taught artist, Olry began drawing as a child and continued to pursue the craft passionately into his young adult life by taking first steps at fanzines following Reiser, Topor and Choron's paths. Eventually, he moved into painting and began creating contemporary art during the 1980s.

Gilles Olry’s influential work illustrates an undeniable understanding of the normative and academic codes of traditional painting juxtaposed with his refreshing ready-to-think of history of Art. Today Olry works and lives in Corbère, Pyrénées-Orientales.