Art: Un grand écran, rue du Chemin Vert, Paris 11 by Boré Ivanoff
ART FEATURE: THE ABSTRACT REAL
The story of The Abstract Real began when I was still working on my paintings from the previous project, “The Mirrors of Paris, between water and glass”. While looking for unconventional and original subjects, we photographed with my co-artist very interesting photographs that I later translated into paintings. They were images that had urban patterns, distorted by multi-reflections on different surfaces of glass or water.
These images, once I gave them a new life on canvas, looked like real abstract artworks. They were so visually delightful for my artistic perception and aesthetic intuition. Then, it naturally came to my mind to go further in the search for even more sophisticated and interesting topics and start this extravagant imagery course, inspired by deformations on multi-reflective surfaces in an urban environment. After creating few such paintings, I felt like I was under a sort of trance, a kind of drug. And not only contemplating the final result as an image, but also and perhaps most importantly the creative process, the path toward the “Grail” was much more interesting, addictive, exciting and in a way transcendent.
So, I wished to share my artworks with the public … To try to find other artists, inspired by and working on the concept. I decided to organize an art exhibition in Paris together with these other artists. The title of the first edition of this project was “The Abstract Nature of Reality”. We held the exhibition in November 2017, in the Royal Hall of the church, La Madeleine, in the heart of Paris. It was a sensational success, although some of the works by some artists did not really fit the theme. But, of course, the success of the first exhibition, and the unlimited wealth of the theme become addictive for me. As we know, all addictions are progressive. Then I arrived at the decision to organize a second edition of the same project. What will be the exhibition this year entitled “The Abstract Real”. This time, I have tried to select and invite much better and matching with the theme, younger, but already known, confirmed and experienced artists for the show. Artists from different horizons of artistic performance and style, and also from various geographical locations. Who are as well very different personalities. Which is a great wealth for the show and the public. Not only a delightful, elegant and unconventional collection of mesmerazing artworks, but also an exotic and unique bouquet of artistic temperaments, united under the title “The Abstract Real”, in this beautiful, cosmopolitan art center that is Paris. Here you can see some examples of the works of all members of this year’s group. For interested collectors and art lovers, we will be happy to invite all those who could travel to Paris, to come enjoy the opening of the show, or just to come and see this high-level art, in this historic and very symbolic place, in the heart of Paris. The opening reception will take place in October the 16th at 1800H, and the exhibition will take place from October 15th to October 21st, 2018. For those who are interested but not able to come personally to the show, they can visit our websites and other online sources, and make personal contact with the artists of their choice for further information and possible acquirement of our artworks.
The Great Escape by Gregory Pelizzari
Lore entangled by Tanya Atanasova
Christoph Eberle
Herbes V by Jacques Bodin
‘Opération éveillé du cerveau’ ou ‘la couronne d’épine’ by Spencer Pelizzari
Jérôme Romain
Ronald Bowen
About the artists:
Boré Ivanoff
Eastern European- born, contemporary, protean artist, based in Paris since 2001. Since 2012 he paints exclusively Paris. Parisian views, ‘jamais vu’ motives are his special feature, blurring the line between abstraction and realism. For Boré Paris it’s the kind of place that offers the right combination of inspiration and pain and suffering to keep him stimulated and painting. Independent and self-confident, with a remarkable ability to surprise and intrigue the viewer … he prefers the enigmatic, the unconventional, and the unexpected. His work is precise, yet it teeters on the threshold of delirium and chaos. He brings outrageous levels, of pictorial realization to his work. His compositions are a sophisticated exercise in the manipulation of form, keyed-up color, density, illusionism, brushwork, and compression. The interior and the exterior merge to produce a single image whose
complexities are almost impossible to untangle. The result is which the abstract nearly trumps the real. Boré wants to see how far he can push reality to the other side where the “real” is still recognizable, but becoming totally abstract, building that tension until they are just one and the same.
Boré Ivanoff (BG-FR) https://boretzart.wordpress.com/
Jacques Bodin
Jacques Bodin, painter, lives and works in Levallois Perret near Paris. He is one of the main representant of european hyperrealism. The paintings, are executed from his own photos modified with numeric tools and projected
on the canvas from a video projector. Large paintings realisation need several months of work. His work explores diverse subject themes such as fruits, hair, still life and vegetation and is organized in the manner in which he captures his subjects and depicts them with meticulous attention. Subject matter includes extreme closeup views of exacting images cast in shadow through reflective lighting.Approaching minimalism, some of the works embark on a conceptual aspect of hyperreality. The apparent hyperrealist frontality of the foregrounds is contrasted with the diffuse aspect of the backgrounds in which we distinguish lines of flight which break the graphical ordering of the canvas. A double-focus hyperrealism in a way. The first glance is attached to the meticulous aspect of the realization, while the eye is lost through what is thought to be a door, an opening, an abstract form.
And if the real subject of the paintings of Jacques Bodin was the time or rather the flight of time. He has been in numerous gallery shows and his work has been featured in many books. He is represented by Plus One gallery in London and State of the Arts gallery in Hong Kong.
Jacques Bodin (FR) https://www.jacquesbodin.com/
Tanya Atanasova
Since her graduation from the National Academy of Art in Sofia, Tanya Atanasova has worked in several different media: painting, ceramics, sculptures and installations… She grew up in an environment where different artistic disciplines were in constant interaction. But although she has been drawing and painting all her life (her secondary and BAA educations were art related), she has only discovered her great passion for oil painting in 2016. Inspired, after visiting the studios/taking master classes by some of her most favorite contemporary artists – she decided to become a full time painter. Dedicated to big size non-traditional portraits, she started weaving her way through contemporary realism. She is now working from her own studio in Antwerp – one of Europe’s most important cities for art and culture. In 2018 she is preparing a solo exposition of portraits (to be completed in 2019) and she was pre-selected for some of world’s most remarkable competition such as MEAM Museum’s in Barcelona. In her artistic practice Tanya uses a lot of old and modern painting techniques to create the different “layers” of a personality, character, spirit, presence… Each of her paintings tells a story and she devotes a lot of attention to the construction of her character’s personalities. Being interested in the psychology of her models, the artist wants to become an intermediary between subject and viewer – building a connection that goes beyond painted realism. Her gaze is directed deep into the story of every personage she creates, his/her identity and unique complexity. Looking at the paintings should be like taking a glimpse into the character’s diary or reading a page out of his/her biography.
Tanya Atanasova (Bg/B), http://www.atanasova.be/
Christoph Eberle
Christoph Eberle was born in 1969 in Zürich, Switzerland. He graduated in 1996 as an architect with a diploma from ETH Zürich. As a self-taught hyperrealistic painter his influences include old masters such as Caravaggio, Vermeer van Delft, Jacques Louis David, Caspar David Friedrich and Segantini. Painting with very fine and concise brushstrokes he is examining/exploring the classic image concepts (landscape and still life). Although photos are used as a starting point in the painting process, the intention is not to fool the eye but to create images that are coherent and self-contained, allowing space for interpretation. So the goal is to achieve a strong and independent visual idea, not a slavish copy. His inspirations are born from snapshots of everyday life – be it in the laundry room or on the way in to town: These moments, when for an instant the light and the situation are coherent, producing a brief moment of clarity and perfection – a type of film still from his personal movie – are what he searches to capture as precisely as possible. In oppostion to the townscapes (etc.), these are mostly pure conceptional constructs with a lot of preparation time and exploration «Having grown up in Switzerland, I cherish one of the scarcest goods in this country: sunshine. Light and heat are for many months in short supply. Therefore light has become an important element in my paintings. The way the light pours over objects, as it defines the object as a body, what area it emphasizes and what disappears in the shadows are common themes throughout my works. In particular the shadows that live, softly vibrating in the dimmed light and give the picture composition grip and provide the motives with volume.»
Christoph Eberle (CH) https://www.christopheberle.ch/
Jerome Romain
Of all of life’s images, what do we have left? This feeling, this impression that Proust described so well; the irradiant detail that we are incapable of seeing, to fixate on a moment in time and carry the true essence of things. This is the exact view that Jerome Romain has on objects, scenes and people of today. He reveals beauty, the beauty that seems banal and does not differentiate between tragedy and happiness. The quality of his research techniques could have driven him toward hyperrealism. This is precisely where lies the difference; he does not paint the subject, he paints meticulously and methodically, the subject’s aesthetic reasoning demanding traces, tensions… and this ever so particular light towards the masters. Le Cavarage, Vermeer, De La Tour and most recently Hopper, which Romain comes close to, in his latest works, through cinematic framing. Brushing aside the reality of verbiage and pathos, Jerome Romain’s work unveils his poetic dimension.
Jérôme Romain(FR) https://www.jeromeromain.com/
Gregory Pelizzari
Gregory Pelizzaritrès proche par sa facture léchée des artistes américains provoque une syncope des rapports d’espace et unit sans arbitraire et dans une étroite imbrication des objets étrangers à travers des jeux de reflets. Ces reflets avec leurs effets d’anamorphose et leurs torsions suscitent entre les œuvres et le spectateur une relation ouverte, mobile et surtout étonnamment plastique. Ses vitrines, qui sont aussi des miroirs, laissent voir ce qui est derrière elles comme elles réfléchissent ce qui est devant. Pelizzari fait ainsi exister un espace intermédiaire, le lieu où se tient le spectateur mais ou il n’apparaît jamais. Son entreprise se concentre sur des jeux d’espace au travers de constructions visuelles sophistiquées, atteignant parfois une certaine forme d’abstraction. Gregory Pelizzari est diplômé des Beaux-Arts à université Illinois du Sud aux Etats-Unis. IL a également suivi une formation dans un Atelier de Design. La technique mixte, il la découvre à;Atelier Néo-Médici sous la tutelle du professeur Patrick Bétaudier à Paris. Il a ensuite poursuivi son apprentissage dans un Atelier New Yorkais ; the Art Form Workshop. Depuis lors, il a de nombreuses expositions à son actif, individuelles et en groupe. Gregory Pelizzari enseigne le dessin et la peinture depuis 1996.
Gregory Pelizzari(USA-FR) http://www.gregorypelizzari.com/