Réminiscences PAINTINGS BY ÉRIC BOURGUIGNON, SIMON CASSON, JÉRÔME DELÉPINE, ROSY LAMB, JEAN-PIERRE RUEL, JULIEN SPIANTI & MARION TIVITAL
PRIVATE VIEW THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 FROM 6 PM TO 9 PM EXHIBITION FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 - SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015
darren baker gallery 81 Charlotte Street London, W1T 4PP
RÉMINISCENCES
Guido Romero Pierini and Association Rémanence join with the Darren Baker Gallery to present « Réminiscences », a new exhibition of artists united by their exploration of the fundamentals of painting, through its early myths and histories. This reflects back to the beginning of the history of figurative painting and acts as a frame for these artists’works, each displaying their own original forms of reminiscence.
R ÉMI N I SC EN C ES — 7
Reminiscence, the act of recalling a faint past presence is translated by Rosy Lamb into a sense of expectation that inhabits the languid bodies of her paintings, leaving them with a resonating loneliness. Her figures are caught in a strange state of time, caught between the past and the present, between what has happened and what is yet to come. This dichotomy also presents itself in Jean Pierre Ruel’s paintings as his images are torn from memory but shifted away from reality through his representation. Ruel’s quest to create an accurate narrative is disrupted as the tension between what was seen and what was felt forms « a new adventure in each canvas ».
Jean-Pierre Ruel, Souvenirs de l’atelier, oil on canvas, 51x38’, 2012 ©
Rosy Lamb, No title, oil on plaster, 33x26’, 2014 ©
R ÉMI N I SC EN C ES — 9
The spaces between feeling and reality are also questioned in Marion Tivital’s paintings. Her floating industrial structures impose mysteriously on the landscape, distorting one’s sense of time and place. These sites appear melancholy as they hint at places marked then deserted by their inhabitants, but can also connote fresh ground from which fantasized stories and new life may emerge.
Marion Tivital, Entre ici et ailleurs, oil on canvas, 29x39,5’, 2013 ©
R ÉMI N I SC EN C ES — 11
Throughout the displayed works, there is a focus on what it means to live and to live again, reproducing emotion and sensation, rather than just information. This is found in the bright touch and intense forms of Eric Bourguignon, recalling the blurred images captured from a glimpsed scene or fleeting silhouette. This is similarly evoked in Jérôme Delépine’s misty, ethereal compositions. The ghostly, evanescent faces and landscapes allude to past encounters, their features faded but not forgotten.
Eric Bourguignon, Paysage, oil on canvas, 39,5x32’, 2014 ©
Jérôme Delépine, Nuages, oil on canvas, 21,5x25,5’, 2014 ©
Lou Ros, CL2, acrylique, pastel et huile sur toile, 195x130 cm, 2014 ©
R ÉMI N I SC EN C ES — 13
The artists of « Réminiscences » exhibition therefore question the paradoxes of appearance and disappearance and how it may be constituted in the act of painting. Julien Spianti and Simon Casson drive this point home, showing how painting, unlike photography is the practice par excellence to amalgamate reality and represent the intransigence of memory.
Julien Verhaeghe, Art critic
Simon Casson, Vayer (Study II), oil on canvas, 16x14’, 2014 ©
Julien Spianti, L’amour de soi, oil on canvas, 51x38’, 2014 ©
Note: In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder tells the tale of Butades of Corinth’s daughter as follows: « It was through his daughter that he made the discovery; who, being deeply in love with a young man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp. » Once the line is drawn, nothing remains but the absence and memory of the beloved – thus, from the beginning, the act of painting and the feelings of loss and melancholy are intertwined. These virtues may have vanished in time yet they are the common ground of the works displayed in the « Réminiscences » show.
Géraldine Bareille
Guido Romero Pierini
Curator
Curator
geraldinebareille@gmail.com + 33 (0)7 85 49 03 20
guidoromeropierini@gmail.com + 33 (0)6 89 08 91 66
Graphic design leszinc.fr leszinc@gmail.com + 33 (0)9 80 83 53 47
galerieguidoromeropierini.com