From 26 September to 24 November 2012 Art Plural Gallery presented the first solo exhibition of acclaimed French artist Bernar Venet in Singapore. As a fringe event, Art Plural Gallery in collaboration with the National Library Board organised an artist talk on 24th September 2012.
New York-based French artist Bernar Venet has been exploring the notions of indetermination, disorder, chance, and unpredictability with perseverance for decades.
For this exhibition, Bernar Venet will show new sculptural reliefs from his GRIB series, an extension of the original wooden Indeterminate Lines that were developed between 1979 and 1983. The works included in this show were made from 35mm steel plates torch-cut by hand. The technique adds to the unpredictable nature of these ‘scribbles’ and gives these works a rougher character and more accessibility than their predecessors. The scribbling of the GRIB wall pieces logically connects the action of drawing in a random two-dimensional gesticulation and the physicality of a precise three-dimensional figure. With these new works, Bernar Venet sees a very wide field of possibilities and new propositions.
Another highlight of the exhibition is the selection of paintings of mathematical equations set in free plastic forms, a perfect synthesis of Art and Mathematics. Part of his latest series, his Saturations andShaped Canvases comprise mathematical formulas that boast a total degree of abstraction. Pushing his painting process beyond the conventional confines, Venet layers equations on top of one another and has started using colour because: “Gallery walls are generally white. Colour has the basic function of elevating my figures from the wall. If I choose a background colour, yellow for example, the visual impact is that much greater than if I paint my diagrams on a white background. The signalling effect is much stronger. One understands that this is a work of art, that it is not simply a text written on the wall, with the aim simply of informing.”
Today, I have much more freedom in my choice of subjects. I select them for their originality, for their remoteness, on the visual level, from anything, as far as I know, that other artists have ever painted.
- Bernar Venet
