Bastien Pery

Born in Biarritz in 1993, lives and works in Paris.

Between intimate memories and vague reminiscences, Bastien Pery explores a multitude of fragments of life. His process involves a graphical representation, a pictorial reinterpretation of the vivid emotions of moments from the past, sometimes fleeting.

Bastien uses family photographs, always imbued with a certain nostalgia, to which he adds filters, enhances color saturation, plays with the brightness of lights, and the depth of shadows. He uses an algorith to allow for a subtly diffused, almost blurry rendering, where the past becomes nothing more than a distant mirage. The treatment alters the integrity of these photographs, with hues and colors enhancing their aged and time-faded character. The environment is not truly fixed; it is ever-changing and moves depending on the angle of viewing. This reveals a parallel version of the original image, questioning the authenticity of this ever-changing nature. Does this vision remain true even in its metamorphosis? Does it create an entirely different narrative?

His subjects are not easily distinguishable from one another; they form a true entity charged with a unique aura that questions and captivates the viewer. The sketched portraits, sometimes without faces, sometimes half-hidden, leave us with a wide range of interpretations. The protagonists first establish visual proximity and then an emotional one, becoming familiar as we watch them observe us. Through a strange but sincere connection, they invite us to join them in contemplating this gentle life of the past.

From the gentle breeze that caresses silk sheets on a warm summer afternoon to the couple embarking on the waltz of their lives, Bastien Pery grants us access to these crystallized moments. Moments that we often set aside in favor of an accelerated present, letting them slip through our fingers. The same goes for the importance he attributes to landscapes and the environment in general. In his paintings, they are never relegated to the background and are an integral part of his compositions, sometimes becoming the main actors of the sketched scenes. Nature, which sometimes appears and sometimes disappears before our eyes, is impossible to freeze, to hold onto eternally. With humility, the artist denounces our lack of awareness of the world that surrounds us daily, a world that doesn't wait for us and whose demise is imminent.