Almine Rech London: Elusive Landscapes

The fluidity of shapes and their inevitably temporary nature are central to Jean-Baptiste Bernadet’s new paintings and Benoît Platéus’ sculptures at exhibition Sea Level at Almine Rech Gallery in London. While both artists’ works vary significantly in medium, they share the elusiveness of landscapes that remind of fluctuations of the level of the sea.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadet’s Black Paintings nod towards American artist Ad Reinhardt’s black monochromes, but function differently from the works of Reinhardt. Each of Bernadet’s works is composed of a mix of black paint and another colour applied on a canvas and spread with a sheet of paper. The technique, which requires speed of working, reveals variations in density of the black and gives the viewer a change to endless interpretations. For the artist, landscapes emerge in the interlacing of the paintings only to immediately vanish again.

Even though Benoît Platéus’ sculptures seemingly vary from Bernadet’s, the horizontality of the layers of colour and the transportable nature of the object carry the same resemblance of vanishing landscapes than Bernadet’s paintings. Since 2011, Platéus has been gathering empty containers that used to hold chemicals needed for photographic printing. He fills the containers with pigmented resin, and as the resin dries, an unexpected frozen movement of the pigments appear similarly than a photograph appears with the chemicals.

Works in the exhibition Sea Level were created in California in 2015, where the two Brussels-based artists travelled together through natural parks of the American West. •

Jean-Baptiste Bernadet and Benoît Platéus: Sea Level at Almine Rech Gallery in London, Great Britain from 8–22 January 2016.

Main image
Jean-Baptiste Bernadet: Untitled (Black Paintings) (2016).
Oil on canvas, artist’s frame.
Size (4 paintings 100 x 150 cm) 207 x 307 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech Gallery.
Photo Hugard & Vanoverschelde Photography.