Stephan Balleux

Stephan Balleux is interested in exploring the medium of painting itself, by bringing together his pictorial interventions with a conceptual project. His approach is historical and thematic, analytical and emotional, reflecting simultaneously on the present and the future of the discipline. His process makes use of painting, sculpture, drawing and 3D animated videos in order to create objects that become visual hybrids. There is a strong photographic component in Stephan Balleux's work, especially in the series Cipher, a part of which is presented for the Ariane de Rothschild Prize. The photographic comes into play through a delicate painting technique, coupled with a painterly simulation of the texture of brushstrokes. The images used by Balleux are predominantly appropriations from either movies or historical documentaries, homogenized by the use of black and white. The chosen images are recognizable or at least familiar, and are then transformed by the addition of a foreign (pictorial and abstract) element that emanates from the artist’s own mythology. The perfection of his paintings, dialogues with the art historical tradition of the trompe l’oeil while their simultaneous presence on the canvas contradicts one another, a simulacra of reality which is at the same time a replica of the simulacra. This apparent conflict conveys an existential dimension to the painting, moving away from a pure demonstration of painting skills. In the 3D videos, Balleux translates his painting skills and aesthetics into a different universe, where the painterly becomes sculptural in which movement and time gain a corporal and physical dimension. Stephan Balleux masters the paintbrush in such a way that his work, through a variety media, always refer to the technique, tradition or experience of painting. Every effort reveal to the viewer the world of painting as seen by the artist: an organic living phenomenon.

Filipa Oliveira