The power of the pictorial form

“Visualize a scenography. Nail down bodies. Make them play” declares Jim Delarge (1975, France), represented by aquilaluna galerie (C15), Casablanca. His creations, somewhere between abstraction and figuration, destabilize and confuse our perception, but at the same time draw our attention to those chromatic details that suggest new visions beyond the ordinary. Resins, pigments, oil, spray on wood, metal or plexiglass are the medias used by the artist to obtain his anthropomorphic images.

The young Allistair Walter (1994, Germany), represented by Philipp Anders Gallery (D22), Leipzig, uses different media approaches such as photography and painting in order to obtain his own practice focusing on the dialogue between memory and perception, subjectivity and reality, deconstruction and construction, content and form. Figuration and abstraction are in constant dialogue, creating visual distortion and new possible immaterial interpretation.

Creatures that evoke the hybrid and the imaginative are found in François Morelli (1953, Montreal), represented by Chiguer art contemporain (C20), Montreal. A fluctuation of forms that interact with delicate and realistic figures leads us to reflect on a state of constant transformation, circulation, and transition toward new temporal and visual dimensions.

Another Canadian artist, Jérôme Bouchard (1977), represented by Galeries Bellemare Lambert (C12), Montreal, pushes painting techniques beyond the limits, using micro-cutting, scraping or micro-perforation to create unique and previously unseen works. As a reflection on the contemporary landscape, deteriorated by human hands, his works become a questioning of our responsibilities and the now ineffable relationship between the human, the nonhuman and the machine. Destruction and creation are once again an unresolved question.

A more intimate reflection on the meaning of landscape today is being pursued by several artists of different generations. Aharon Gluska (1951, Israel), represented by Galerie Lazarew (A12), Paris, is using ink, blue pigments and paint to create imaginary landscapes that recall the geological memory of our land, constructing new scenarios far from the panoramas to which we have become accustomed. Humanity is absent, there are no traces of civilization, only earth, sky, air and a suspended time that immobilizes the atmosphere.

Similarly, Stefan Peters (1978, Belgium), represented by Zwart Huis (A15), Brussels, paints elusive, almost intangible landscapes, immersed in an aura of timelessness. The majesty of the mountains dominates the scene, and the often-monochromatic tone makes the atmosphere even more illusory. Day and night are indistinguishable, time stands still, but light triumphs over darkness. An irresistible dialogue between light and colour projects these scenarios into another dimension, where imagination and fantasy meet without temporal or visual limits.

A similar atmosphere filled of that sublime typical of romanticism can be found in the paintings of another young Belgian artist, Loïc Van Zeebroek (1994, Belgium), represented by Dauwens & Beernaert Gallery (B11), Brussels. He depicts  monochrome scenes where the humanity is forgotten, solitary delicate expanses of green meadows or details of sea waves suspended in their gentle aquatic motion are filling the scenes. Only the silence of the natural world meets the panorama; the rest is lost.

The human figure returns to be present in the works of Peer Boehms (1968, Germany), represented by Galerie Anja Knoess (B18), Cologne; not true portraits but a trace of the human presence as a reflection on the liaison between image and absence, presence and disappearance. The artist digitally reworks historical photographs found online, and with the help of the evanescence of watercolor, coffee, dust, and the precision of a ballpoint pen, he creates scenarios that exist on their own setting. There are references to reality, but the scene remains suspended in a new visual context, where the memory of the past merges with the certainty of a present yet to be identified.

The pictorial approach of Robin Wen (1994, Belgium) represented by Belgian Gallery (C04), Ixelles, oscillates between the fantastic and the realistic. He is using the ballpoint pen as a tool to create his compositions, which are extremely precise and meticulous in their detail and complexity. The subjects are drawn from everyday life, from ordinary objects to portraits of people, often seen from behind, where the precision of the touch meets the delicacy of the subject, who remains suspended in a dreamlike dimension.

The attraction to the simplicity of everyday objects is also evident in Julien Lischka's work (1986, France) represented by Sobering Galerie (B01), Paris. Modern still life of flowers, books, vases, street corners, or private home interiors stand out against monochromatic backgrounds, challenging the balance between stillness and movement, joy and sadness, emotion and stability. As in a photographic composition, where light reveals things, so the light of his painting brings life back to ordinary objects, too often forgotten in their obviousness.

Finally, in Renaud Suanez's work (1995 France) represented by Galerie Pauline Renard (D02), Lille, we also find a strong focus on contemporary still life. In his works, created with oil on Dibond, the artist once again explores the role that images play today in the reality that surrounds us. Suarez portrays objects, but also people; time is suspended, but the trace of the painterly touch restores a liveliness to the composition that recalls the forms, details, and symbolism of the Italian Renaissance.