Paris art scene a text by Kathy Borrus

Paintings at a Crossing. Many of the images of contemporary artist Isabelle Bonzom, Parisian painter and muralist, are as rife with meaning as they are with color. Isabelle Bonzom’s most recent work on exhibit at Galerie Marie-Claude Duchosal suggests a duality of meaning and place. Hers are images that cross over into a different realm.

She infuses her canvases with dabs of color, creating reflective images where one is lost in time and space but simultaneously grounded in place. A New York City street scene, a Parisian park, a statue of a WWI soldier in contemporary landscape–all invite contemplation. Whether the figures are walking, jogging or resting, Bonzom says, “…they cross the picture plane and the space…And we are all traversing, crossing this world.” Atoms rotating and bouncing around. In her words Bonzom depicts a “symbiosis, osmosis between human being and nature.” The foliage, for instance, seems to shade yet penetrate the body.

Relationships between our interior life and the exterior crossover, as seen in the hazy portraits (one of which I own) of artist Eric Fischl gazing down at the pond in front of him. Everything is open. What is he pondering as he seems to see beneath the surface ripples of water? And, as the viewer, are we witness to our own traverses through life? Decide for yourself: Don’t miss Bonzom’s exquisite portraits and landscapes bursting with color, light, and energy yet simultaneously with calm.

Read Eric Fischl’s poetic essay—an imaginary conversation—on Isabelle Bonzom’s painting, “Entre nous”, published in the catalog “Traverses”