NEWS
EXHIBITION "BY NATURE"
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PORTABLE FRESCOES
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Isabelle Bonzom "Star Dust" buon fresco
"A RENAISSANCE WOMAN ON A MISSION TO REVIVE THE ART OF FRESCO PAINTING"
About Isabelle Bonzom's frescoes
by Julia Alexandra Mee
Leesang Art Space and Institute
represents Isabelle Bonzom's painting in South Korea and Asia
Leesang, 6gil 13, Sapyoungdae-ro Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Please visit Leesang Gallery website
A group show at the Musée de Saint-Maur - Villa Medicis
"1914-2018 Témoins d'hier, mémoire d'aujourd'hui"
From September 15 to November 18, 2018,
museum director and art historian Bernadette Boustany
presented the entire series painted by Isabelle Bonzom about the WW1 soldier
during the commemorative exhibition at the Musée de Saint-Maur - Villa Medicis (near Paris)
Isabelle Bonzom was the only female artist, the only living painter of this group show.
Musée de Saint-Maur - Villa Medicis 5 rue Saint-Hilaire, 94210 La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire
For more info, please click on this page dedicaded to the series of the Poilu
"I have chosen to do a series of paintings about a particular statue of the Poilu, the name given by French people to French soldiers who fought in the First World War. This statue is a memorial located in the town where I live and work. I found this sculpture poignant and as if it is almost alive. Its current urban environment creates a time warp which arouses my interest.
Indeed, this soldier, isolated, yet in full action, cohabits strangely with emblems of the consumer society. He could pass unnoticed, being part of the landscape, but, for me, his dramatic strength is revealed by the power of the natural elements or the night lights around him.
The magnolia flowers which I paint around him are sanguine, fleshy and bloody. They suggest the carnage and horror which this soldier experienced after he left for war with "with a flower in his rifle". I evoke the danger, the destiny which awaits him, his life rendered precarious and the risk of being turned into cannon fodder.
I do no glorify war. I empathize with this poor soldier whose life has been destroyed. I also reflect upon these images of sacrifice which populate our towns."
Isabelle Bonzom
"Constellations"
February - March 2018, Orenda Gallery, 54, rue de Verneuil, between Musée d'Orsay and the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, in Paris.
For this show, Isabelle Bonzom is the only female artist, the other artists included Italian painters
Giovanni Cerri and Antonio Mignozzi and French sculptor Bernard Abtey.
"I have devoted my work to the relationship between human beings, their environment, and the infinite. Yet, for me, what matters most is the exploration of my language, that is, of painting. I paint with stains, marks and traces. I like to play with chance and accidents when paint is flowing or when I spray it on the support. The canvas is studded with dots. Colored veils track the wood veins. I create links between painting, support and iconography because paint is a substance and embodies the image. I create metamorphoses : my clouds are trails of colors, the lights and aura of the city blend into the night sky, the vegetal becomes aquatic, aerial and cosmic, human bodies merge into luminous cascades. I am fascinated by atmospheric phenomena and the Milky Way, by their spectacular and pictorial qualities. I have been impressed also by the writings of Epicurus and Lucretius. As a painter, I share their concept of an open world, a world in the making, where micro and macro connect, where bodies are traversed by particles and seeds. The world is fluid, germinating and expanding. The carnal aspect of my painting, and its plasticity, echo the fertile rain of atoms."
Isabelle Bonzom
“Goya Affresco” : a talk by artist, frescoist, art researcher Isabelle Bonzom
As a painter, frescoist and art historian, Isabelle Bonzom participated in a panel curated and moderated by David Pullins of the Frick Collection, at the 2018 College Art Association conference. Entitled "Working Out of Medium", the panel asked what happens when an artist steps outside her or his preferred medium. Isabelle Bonzom discussed how Francisco de Goya’s rare fresco work informed his broader endeavor as a painter. At the College Art Association conference, she was extremely pleased to share with Mr. Pullins and the other panelists: Ruth Ezra (Harvard University), Karli Wurzelbacher (University of Delaware) and Emily Beeny (Getty Museum). Isabelle Bonzom was awarded an international fellowship grant by the prestigious Kress Foundation in support of her lecture given at the College Art Association annual convention held in Los Angeles.
Interview of frescoist Isabelle Bonzom by Barbara Badetti :
An essay about Isabelle Bonzom's painting by art critic and curator,
Helen Gramotnev, published in the Australian cultural site Brushword :
Helen Gramotnev notably writes "Isabelle’s ability to remain receptive to her surroundings is what allows her to use painting as a way of activation... Her intelligent, highly intuitive, and multifaceted compositions demand much more than just a glance. And every time a critic writes about Isabelle, their impressions rightly attribute to her depth and maturity of thought, and feeling and breathing life in her work."
Read the full text of Helen Gramotnev's essay about Isabelle Bonzom
The Emancipation of Colour
an article by art critic and curator, Gabino Kim, about Isabelle Bonzom's painting
Read the interview of Isabelle Bonzom by journalist Maïa Mazaurette
on the artist's male nudes, published by GQ
Collector - Art Impact
In her book Collector published in Seoul, journalist and curator Eunju Park dedicates a long chapter of her book to the impact of art on life. She bases her analysis on the painting of Isabelle Bonzom in which Eunju Park discerns a vital force and a creative abundance. The author views the singular approach of this artist as embodying the constructive and beneficent power of art on the human being.
Read and watch about Collector's book and the Art Impact
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Isabelle Bonzom - The Savor of Things
A video about Isabelle Bonzom's painting is on Youtube, with quotes by art critics, art historians, philosophers and curators.