ART CITIES:Paris-Jean Baptiste Bernadet

Living and working in Brussels and New York, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet uses the ways that colors, and their interaction, both activate the senses and allow the viewer to reflect back on the nature of that sensory activation, something which we realize in conditioned by both us and the artist being products of a certain time and place.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Almine Rech Gallery Archive

Jean-Baptiste Bernadet presents at Almine Rech Gallery in Paris, his solo exhibition “Hors Saison” that includes and new works. Bernadet’s working process is deceptively simple. He builds up a field by taking a thin brush and progressively and systematically, if always intuitively, lays down a flurry of quick marks in his bright, almost pastel palette of oils mixed with wax and alkyd. There are slight variations in the application of each mark, the overall effect, however, is towards unity, with the field being built up in an all-over fashion. Bernadet’s goal is to prevent the eye from being able to definitively locate any points of focus such that, as he paints the painting, the artist constantly adjusts any passages that seem to jump out at him. “My approach isn’t radical. Painting is simply the most practical discipline for me, the medium which suits me best and that I’m most comfortable with. It allows me to do something and see an immediate result”. Bernadet resists resorting to automatic methods, absolute certainty and rules for each painting, and the same can be said for his series. They aren’t premeditated but rather build themselves up gradually and never really reach an endpoint. “Vetiver” and “Fugues” are two series on which the artist has been working for five years and has shown in previous exhibitions. The former reveals evanescence and transparency while the latter conveys a more sustained rhythm of strokes and lines of color. Bernadet also works outside the confines of such series producing solitary, independent paintings which seem to diverge from one another and require an exhibition to bring them into conversation. However, what seems paramount for Bernadet is forever starting anew and reshuffling the deck of cards in the hope of dealing a hand of fresh, fugacious sensations.

Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 64 Rue de Turenne, Paris, Duration: 11/1-24/2/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com