This exhibition occurred in September 2015
AXELLE FINE ARTS GALERIE SOHO is proud to present LES GENS DU CANAL, a new collection of work by French painter Philippe Charles Jacquet. The artist has worked with the gallery since 2008 and has had seven extremely successful solo exhibitions in that time. Trained as an architect, Jacquet paints mysterious twilight worlds with incredible precision and detail. Inspired by the coasts, estuaries and architecture of the Rance Valley in Brittany, France, his oil on board works are stunning composites of the real and the imagined.
Jacquet’s signature simple stone houses seem to rise organically from the earth and sit among vast seas, skies and rolling fields. The artist often includes a single, small person, emphasizing the greatness of the surrounding natural world. Jacquet’s houses often have a single golden light shining from a window – similarly to the inclusion of a solitary person, this light can be interpreted as a symbol of hope or one of loneliness. It is up to the viewer to decide. At once, Jacquet depicts the world as one of natural beauty and wonder and as one of profound emptiness.
His serene greens and blues lend a dreamlike feeling to his surreal compositions. His pieces play with the viewer’s perception – it is often unclear whether the artist has depicted water or grass, a floating boat or a resting one – in this way, his works are enigmatic other worlds, reminiscent of reality but wholly peculiar and unearthly at the same time.
Born in Paris in 1957, Jacquet studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 2000, after 20 years in the field, he stopped and dedicated himself solely to painting. In fact, he never studied painting and his technique is entirely self-taught. Jacquet currently lives and works in Pantin, a suburb of Paris. He will attend the opening reception on September 24, 2015.
Hugo Fine Arts Galerie
472 West Broadway, NY 10012
212.226.2262
www.hugogalerie.com
