Gilles Combet grew up in Paris and London.  His early education included drawing and painting classes at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs.  He soon rebelled against conventional academics, dropping out of the prestigious Parisian preparatory school the Lycee Louis Le Grand shortly before graduation.  Turning his back on his bourgeois upbringing, he apprenticed himself to the Compagnons du Tour de France, an ancient craft guild dating back to the Middle Ages.

After learning trade of roof carpentry from the Compagnons, Combet left the guild and traveled extensively in Europe.  At the age of 18, he went to Africa, where he lived for six months in the Sahara desert with a family of Touareg nomads.  This experience was pivotal in his life.

Upon his return to France, Combet pursued a 10-year career as a professional dancer, working with the respected choreographer Karin Waehner and others.  Dance brought him to the United States, first to New York and then to San Francisco. 

In 1988, Combet learned that he was HIV-positive. He decided at that time to pursue his first passions: drawing and painting.  Since then, he has been a working artist in the United States and in France.  He has taught high school students with special needs, taken a degree in multimedia and web design at the University of Marseille, and has worked as a graphic designer.

Gilles Combet currently lives in San Francisco, where he teaches at Creativity Explored, an internationally renowned art center for adults with developmental disabilities. He has been working for the last 4 years on a series of large abstract paintings on paper as well as a number of studies exploring the California  landscape and the human body.