Studio visits by appointment

Biographie

Artist’s note

“What fascinates me about abstract art are its forms and colors, contrasting or not, he says. I do not necessarily aim for opposing hues, an altogether too simplistic approach. Instead, I’m driven by visual shock values. This is probably my way of capturing emotions, of interpreting and converting them according to my current yearnings and misgivings – in other words, a way of attracting some attention despite my diffidence. Very often I attempt to connect with the canvas, which somehow seems to repulse my attempts. Applying the final touches to a painting provides an opportunity to release what I’ve held back. I use everything around me, grabbing every tube, mixing and mashing them shamelessly, throwing them away instead of putting them back where they belong.”

At 61, Michel Montanier already sees himself in retirement. Self-taught, he started painting in June 2010, suddenly, from one day to the next.
Why his sudden passion for painting? He can’t really say. For quite some years he’d experienced a growing interest in the arts, with a predilection for abstract compositions. Some 15 to 20 years ago, he’d had the pleasure of meeting Georges Mathieu in Boulogne-sur-Mer, “an artist who doesn’t go unnoticed, a charming self-assured character.”

He draws his inspiration from a variety of sources: Karel Appel, Sam Francis, Jean Dubuffet, Jackson Pollock, Patrick Paufert…

Montanier favors acrylics but admits that he’ll turn to oil painting one of these days. His preferred colors include red, yellows and, inescapably, black. He favors generous texture, thick layers of matter which he works with spatulas.” I admit I’m partial to relief, sometimes a bit too much, but that’s the way it is.” His paintings come in all sizes although he prefers larger dimensions, 100 x 100 cm or 150 x 120 while secretly contemplating even larger formats, 200 x 200 cm for instance…

Other works : Drawing

Contact: artnet.ch – Christiane Franquin, 1268 Begnins, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 22 366 42 22 / +41 (0) 76 521 50 60 Email: info@artnet.ch

Site : piezanowski-art.over-blog.com

Visit by appointment

Biography

J.J. Piezanowski was born in 1952. Following his early efforts in a contemporary pictorial idiom, he went on to acquire a solid grounding in painting techniques: drawing, composition, oil and watercolor techniques… Then came his classical period as a member of the International Society of Figurative Art. Exhibitions of his works were staged in France, Germany, the U.S. and Japan while he pursued his regular job as a metallurgical engineer.

Having fully mastered the painter’s art, he reverted to contemporary idioms, expressing himself in recent years in a post-modern neo-expressionist style.

Exploring the human soul, Piezanowski seeks to capture the signs of time’s flight. His scenic depictions and portraits display de-structured faces and contrasting colors, accentuated as by stigmata of existence. Yet behind the eyes of his subjects you can always find gentleness and some form of inner grace. In such eyes glow sparks of hope.

The artist’s ink drawings are spare, capturing expressions or emotions with simple, often single spontaneous strokes.

Contrasting with this atmosphere, his titles convey a sense of blitheness, seasoned with a touch of poetry and humor, sole defense against a a sometimes violent world – much like life itself.

Contact: artnet.ch – Christiane Franquin, 1268 Begnins, Suisse
Tel: +41 (0) 22 366 42 22 / +41 (0) 76 521 50 60 Email: info@artnet.ch

WORKSHOP VISIT

Biographical note

Possessing both Swiss and French nationality, German born Barbara Gabathuler lives and works in Geneva, where for the last 20 years she has had her own studio. She studied art history at the University of Geneva and received classical training at a number of teaching institutions including the School of Decorative Arts in Geneva.

Technique:

Oil on canvas, wood and paper.
She also makes her own paper.
Installations.

Regular exhibits in Switzerland and abroad since 1993.

Public and private acquisitions in Switzerland, England, France, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey and the United-States.

Member of Visarte Switzerland

Statement:

My art work is essentially centered on the research of light, transparency, marks and imprints, colours, lines and textures. My paintings are inspired by Jazz music and strive to possess their own musicality. Moreover, they speak of a passage between the interior and the outside. They are to be understood rather as suggestions than as obligations and certainties.

Barbara Gabathuler’s paintings diffuse intense color Changes. Her art is an abstraction inspired by organic substances. The essential and inherent nature the painter gives to color is a substance that produces multiple feelings, often displaying a variety of rhythms, a feeling of the earth`s own minerals bursting and spreading over the canvas, unlimited to the confines of abstraction.

The red colors are those of the suffocating air, the carmine reds carry the emission of light from the bowels of the earth and they conceal, take hold and stream tides in which different lights ablaze or choke. The blue colors are those of the lakebeds, hardly ever navy blue. Gray color spread, sometimes tormented and which push back their greens to turquoise.

Most of the time, color is worked as a material, polished in its development and only reflects and in turn shows its true substance.

Sometimes a tonal contrast produces a change in plans. A line composes a passage from one universe to another. Here we tackle the only structure which is susceptible to questioning Time, Dusk, Night, and Dawn.

Marie-Paule Curtil

Expositions / Exhibitions

1993 à 1999 :
Nîmes, Saint-Victor-sur-Loire, Nyons, Sablet, Orange, Nyon,  Genève, Carcassonne, Vaison-la-Romaine,  La Roche-sur-Foron, Malaucène, Portes Ouvertes des Ateliers Genevois, Genève, Galerie         Marianne Brand, Genève, Europ’Art,

2000 :   Salon des Indépendants, Paris

2001 :   Galerie du Magnolia, Lausanne, Galerie 207, Genève

2002 :
Portes Ouvertes des Ateliers Genevois, Galerie Ferme de la Chapelle, Genève, Galerie 207, Genève

2003 :   Artforum, Montreux, Galerie Ferme de la Chapelle, Genève

2004 :   Galerie Art-au-Pluriel, Vevey, Quid Novi, Gaillard/F

2005:
Artforum, Montreux, Europ’Art, Genève, Semaine des Arts, Douvaine/F, Galerie de l’Enclume, Bôle/Neuchâtel, Artiste invitée à la Biennale de Soyhières/Jura

2006 :    Galerie Allaire, Paris, Villa Dutoit, collective Visarte Genève

2007 :
« Okkupation » Zurich, Installation, Galerie Au-delà-des-Apparences, Annecy, « Affiches en ville », Genève, Galerie 29, Evian, Collective SSBA Forum Meyrin/Ge, « Prochain Arrêt », collective d’artistes, Neuchâtel, Espace Art Contemporain Larith Chambéry/F, 2 installations

2008 :
Projektraum M54, Basel, Installation »Silence is killing you softly », BIAM Québec, Canada, « Frontière » Neuchâtel, « Liebes Zeichen », Pfäffikon/ZH, Artchêne, Double-Vue, Genève, Installation en ville,  Espace Larith, Chambéry/F

2009 :     Galerie La Ruine, Genève, « In the Box » Sierre, Biennale d’Art Sacré, Lyon/F

2010 :     Kulturschiene, Herrliberg/ZH, Ferme de la Chapelle, Genève
Ferme de la Chapelle, Genève, collective « Haïti », Open Week, Genève

2011 :

Ferme Rosset, Troinex, Suisse
Résidence à Amman, Jordanie et exposition personnelle à la Galerie Foresight sous le patronage de l’Ambassade Suisse en Jordanie
« From Floor to Ceiling » exposition Galerie Nabad, Amman, artiste permanent Rathania’s Ars Similis Casus, Musée Rath, Genève

Acquisitions publiques et privées en Angleterre, Etats-Unis, France, Japon, Jordanie, Maroc, Suisse et Turquie.

Membre Visarte

Contact: Max Parisot – 14 rue des Lavoirs – 70300-Luxeuil-les-bains – France
Tel: +33 06 07 47 50 72 Email: max.parisot@free.fr Site: http://iophotos.com
Studio visits by appointment

About myself

As an amateur photographer during my profession travels, I have put together a photo library of some 25,000 photos, which I have drawn upon to create what I call unique photographic artworks ” tableaux photos”. These photographic artworks  ( tableaux photos) represent what I would like to see with my own eyes, that is, beauty, permanence, innocence, light and hope. Photoshop has allowed me to realize my dreams. Now that I have a little more time, I am able to immerse myself more in this task.

Contact: Anouchka Djurdjevac and Paola Cardone – Escaliers du Marché 9 – 1003 Lausanne – Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 76 518 69 35 Email: dcnoisiamo@yahoo.fr Site: http://www.noi-siamo.com

Biography

Anouchka Djurdjevac was born in Switzerland where she is currently living and working. She also lived in Britain for many years. Her origins are Argentinian, Italian and Yugoslavian.

Paola Cardone was born in Switzerland where she currently lives and works. She is of Italian and Swiss origin.

Anouchka and Paola’s collaboration is based on their shared artistic sensitivity which each expresses in her own individual, personalised way.

Anouchka Djurdjevac was born in Switzerland where she is currently living and working. She also lived in Britain for many years. Her origins are Argentinian, Italian and Yugoslavian.

From an early age, her mother, a classical dancer, inspired in her the desire to search for her own personalized form of movement. As a consequence, her body language naturally expresses the feelings and thoughts that drive her. Through the use of media such as photography or videos, she seeks, through movement, the breath which allows her to find escape from the omnipresent oppression, thereby releasing the body from its constraints.

Anouchka also uses writing – either in the form of poetry or integrated into her videos.

By projecting the mind beyond the body, words become symbolic images which allow everyone to find his or her reflection in a more universal language.

Paola Cardone was born in Switzerland where she currently lives and works. She is of Italian and Swiss origin.

As a composer she works on soundtracks and music for short films and installations. Her music introduces a new dimension which leads to the discovery of emotions that emanate from the image.

In parallel, Paola works on images – either photographs or video images – in search of the aesthetic quality which will sublimate the movement and the meaning. She also works with various materials, such as iron, to create the right settings for her photographs.

Exhibitions

Projection of the film “I believe that we are what we are…that is? …” University of Paris (Nanterre) at the Conference “Allegory of genders” (France, 2006)

“Breathtaking …” at the “Montreux Art Gallery” in the category “Free-ranging young designers” funded by the MAG (Switzerland, 2006)

Audio report “Infinitely small journal” by Martine Galland, Radio Suisse Romande (Switzerland, 2005)

Magazine article in “Trajectoire” (Switzerland, 2003) Exhibition “Metamorphosis 1″ at the Paris Festival “Photobis” (France, 2002)

Contact: Amaury Prot – Montpellier – France
Tel: + 33 (6) 59 26 11 96
Email: amauryprot@gmail.com Site: www.amauryprot-sculpteur.com

Studio visits by appointment

Contact for Switzerland:
artnet.ch – Christiane Franquin, 1268 Begnins, Suisse
Tel: +41 (0) 22 366 42 22 / +41 (0) 76 521 50 60  Email: info@artnet.ch

Biography

Amaury Prot

Born in 1976, I spent the first 20 years of my life between Africa, Southeast Asia, and the United States, as a consequence of various overseas assignments of my parents, before returning to Europe.
My sources of inspiration are to be found in the diversity of form—natural, architectural, artistic—which surround me, and especially the people among whom I lived: the wealth and diversity of their different cultures, origins and ethnicities.
I acquired a basic grounding in sculpture in 1996 and have been practicing it professionally since 2002. I work primarily with clay, although numerous other materials attract me. I love this particular material, the fact that it alone combines the four natural elements: earth, water, air and fire.

Influenced by what is termed ‘ethnic’ art, I seek to find and explore purified shapes and forms through which I can express and share all those feelings alive and flowing within me: love, pain, interchange of ideas, sharing, happiness, rebellion…
I work on impulse. Each sculpture is a part of me but also the technical challenge of making it materialized, making it actually come to life. In my work, each piece is the expression of my own personal searching and an understanding of others.

Main Exhibitions

“Salon des Artistes Indépendants“ (Exhibition of Independent Artists), Grand Palais, Paris, France
“Europ’Art”, Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland
“Autumn Exhibition”, nr Pont-du-Gard, France, Gold Medal
Montpellier City & Urban Centre, Montpellier, France
Art Centre “Le Renaissance”, Uzès, France
Salle de la Gerbe (Community Hall ), Grabels, France

Contact: Henri Bertrand  Tel: +41 (0) 21 800 06 86
Email: henri-b@bluemail.ch Son site: www.henribertrand.ch

Studio visits by appointment

About myself

Place of birth :  Born 1946 in Geneva, Switzerland

Residence  :  Apples, Vaud

Education :   Geographer, teacher, infographist artist

Memberships :  Société Suisse des Beaux Arts, Geneva section

Professional member of ISC-International Sculpture Center

Biography

Throughout the ages, erosion and telluric forces, active on a geological scale of time, have been shaping our planet. During all this time, intimately linked to this mineral world, life continues to unfurl the complex profusion of its history.

Among the most recent life forms, humanity has been inscribing its own footprint on the planet Earth, as other species now extinct have done in the past. However, though humanity is subject to the same natural laws as other life forms, it has modified, and continues to modify, the fundamental balance of the planet with a speed and to an extent never before reached, thereby running the risk of endangering its own future.

It is within this framework that my work as a sculptor lies.

My training as a geographer has led me to appreciate the spatial dimension of human activity; my more intuitive artistic perspective has allowed me to visually transpose the feelings inspired by my perception of the world.

Trees, attached to a given geographic location, are a living sign of the vital link they maintain with the soil in which they grow. Their capacity to embody the path leading from the mineral world to organic life has made them, for me, the foundation on which my work as a sculptor is based.

In the mass of wood provided by the tree, I sculpt successions of carefully controlled, undulating layers. Once colors are applied to these undulations, they act upon each other, developing a play of systematic and random forms which combine to create surfaces reminiscent of the forces that shape the planet earth. More and more often, I incorporate in my work groups of small human figures moving about in a vast environment which they act upon, but which nevertheless surpasses them.

Professional activities

2010-2007 Sculpture, Apples

2006-2004 Personal plastic productions, 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver

2003-2002 Graphics/infographics teacher, Haute Ecole de Gestion, Genève

2004-1978 Geography + multimedia teacher, Collège et Ecole de commerce Emilie-Gourd, Geneva

1978-1971 Assistant (map making), Geography department, Geneva University

Personal graphic activity

2010-2005 Further reflexion on ways to express the power of tectonic forces and fragility of terrestrial ecosystem in my sculpted work.

2004-2003 Beginning of a reflection on how to visually transpose my perception of  fundamental elements in natural or man-made landscapes (iteration of simple  lines/shapes, juxtaposition/succession of different temporal and spatial scales).

2002-1988 Infographics and drawing : posters, show information leaflets (theater, exhibitions…), corporate image conception, web-design,
Personal picture designing
Participation to drawing and sculpture (wood, metal) training courses.
Small personal production

Personal exhibitions

May – June 2010 : «Finitudes», Fondation L’Estrée, Ropraz

November 2006 : 10th Eastside Culture Crawl, Vancouver

November 2005 : 9th Eastside Culture Crawl, Vancouver

Oct. – Dec 2005  : Old FireHall Arts Centre, Vancouver

October 2005 : L’Espace, Vancouver

March – April 2005 : Alliance française, Vancouver

November 2004 : 8th Eastside Culture Crawl, Vancouver

December 2003 : Salon Plaza, Genève

Group shows

Coming: June 2011 «Botanica», SSBA, Villa du Jardin Alpin, Genève

November 2010 «Artcaddie», Fondation L’Estrée, MAG, Montreux

July-Aug. 2007 Cantorama, Jaun, Fribourg, Suisse

November 2006 Francophone Cultural and Artistic Council of British Columbia, Richmond

February 2006 Vancouver International Film Centre & Vancity Theater, «Les 12ès Rendez-vous du Cinéma québécois et francophone»

October 2005 Have to Have (Culture Crawl pre-show), Home & Interior Design Show, Vancouver

Other works: Photography

Contact: artnet.ch – Christiane Franquin, 1268 Begnins, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 22 366 42 22 / +41 (0) 76 521 50 60 Email: info@artnet.ch

Alain Bresson was born in 1948 in Morocco.
Today he lives and works in France’s Yonne region. His work incorporates elements of Land Art and of the art of the Peculiar. Transient or otherwise, his creations call for a natural background: forest, parc, garden or other public space.

Biography

You can sometimes find him in a forest, walking between trees. He keeps his eyes peeled, looking for just the right branch, shape or life — for traces of life that testify to attacks on natural life and the pitilessness of a world that uncaringly destroys in the name of human consumption.

Alain Bresson’s world is thus full of promise if you know how to capture its lights.

Selection of exhibitions since 2000

2000

15 ans de sculpture, Biennale, Avallon, France
Maison de la sculpture, Nevers, France
Sculptures monumentales, Jura, France

2001
Maison de la Culture, Nevers, France
Espace culture et céramique, Vallorbe, Suisse

2003

Exposition Zoo Exquis, Château du Grand Jardin, Joinville (52), France
Un village, un artiste, 89740 Gland, France

2004

Sculptures dans la Ville – Saint-Dizier – Haute-Marne, France
Centre des Congrès de Reims – Marne, France

2005

Centre d’art contemporain Passages de Troyes (Aube) , France
Musée National de la céramique – SEVRES.
Centre D’art Passages – TROYES.
Maison de l’outil , biennale internationale de la céramique – TROYES. France

2006

Sculptures monumentales, Centre Culturel Franco – Guinéen – CONAKRY -GUINEE
Galerie CRID’ART, Amneville-les-Thermes, France
Exposition – Maison des Arts et des Loisirs – Laon, France

2007

Sculptures monumentales – Château du Grand Jardin – Joinville (52) , France
Sculptures monumentales – Espace Beaujon – festival du Trop – Paris, France
Festival de la ronde des feux – Chaource (10) , France

2008

Photographies – Expédition scientifique et artistique – Groenland, Canada
Exposition Mail’Art, Le Sélect – Paris Montparnasse, France

2009

Espace Bouchez – exposition photographies – Tonnerre (89) , France
Sculptures monumentales – Laufenburg – Allemagne
Sculptures monumentales – Argenteuil sur Armançon (89) , France
Sculptures monumentales – journées du patrimoine – La Ville sous Orbais (51) , France

Contact: artnet.ch – Christiane Franquin, 1268 Begnins, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 22 366 42 22 / +41 (0) 76 521 50 60 Email: info@artnet.ch
WORKSHOP VISIT

Biography

Elise Rebiffé

Author-photographer

Elise Rebiffé was born in 1959 at Montreuil-sous-Bois, France

After completing her baccalaureat and professional training as an interior decorator, she spent three months travelling in Australia and then was hired by the French daily newspaper « Libération » where she was trained in photoengraving.

During Elise’s seven years at « Libération », she took a six-month unpaid leave of absence to travel to Mexico and at the same time, from 1980 to 1987, undertook her initiation to the mysteries of the art of photography, discovering her passion for the photographic medium’s power to express the world of dreams and the realm of the marvelous.

In 1987, Elise Rebiffé decided to leave “Libération” to complete her training in the techniques of photography and enrolled in a course of studies in professional photography at the Louis Lumière School in Paris.

On completion of her studies, she spread her wings and launched herself as a quasi self-taught independent photographer. With her press book tucked under her arm, she set out to explore activity sectors most closely linked to her personal tastes in which she was eager to express herself (artistic creation, perfumery, haute couture).

Since 1988, Elise Rebiffé has lived off earnings from her demanding yet infinitely rewarding trade as a photographer while, in parallel, continuing to delve ever deeper into the magic world of the photographic image. Her universe is one of poetic vision, suspended time, capturing the exact right “moment” – a universe in which the imagination reigns over the emotion. Setting out to encounter that “moment” in time, looking out for it, waiting for it with a mixture of love and sincerity to then relish an intense moment of inspiration and then sharing it with the beholder.

Elise worked in Paris until 2006. For the past five years she has lived and worked in Lausanne.

In her portraits, she seeks to highlight and capture a person’s aspirations, most intimate impulses, personal beauty and strength. In her still life images, she seeks to breathe life into objects which in principle have none.

Visit by appointment

Born in Tunisia of an Italian mother and a Russian father, Daniel Podva soon embraced the blend of cultures borne since Antiquity by the winds of Mediterranean history.

The man is ageless. Entirely self-taught, he adopted the culture of France, whose poetry and refinement today structure his sensibility.

Moving to Paris, he turned to advertising photography as a career, ultimately leading to steady collaboration with the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar.

Daniel Podva’s professional trajectory drew him to the world of art. Inspired by Botticelli following a trip to Florence, he took up painting.

His artistic interest focussed on the women of France enhanced in his earlier photography.

He sees them as nostalgic, with a hint of absence in their gaze that leaves the onlooker with an impression of unattainability.

Suggestive of mystery, love and even drama, his subjects exclude indifference.