Jean-Baptiste Bernadet

Untitled (Fugue XV) 2014

Oil on Canvas

200 x 180cm

The French born artist Jean-Baptiste Bernadet is one of the most prominent contemporary figures in Brussels’ booming artist community. Born in 1978, he presents a fresh and heterogeneous take on painting and creative impulse: hand-made, unprocessed and authentic, his oeuvre reflects his personality in its combination of resilience and innovation.

In the past year he has appeared at multiple solo exhibitions, including the ‘Fugue’ installation at American Contemporary New York, whilst simultaneously co-running his ‘Middlemarch’ project in Brussels. The artist’s group exhibitions are internationally acclaimed: with locations ranging from his home town to prominent contemporary art shows in Italy and Paris. His work was highly celebrated in the 2013 edition of the ‘Young Belgian Art Prize’, standing out amongst the final nine featured nominees. After being featured in the ‘Artists to Watch’ at the M Building in Miami this year, Bernadet’s already successful career is sure to flourish. 

His abstract oeuvres span the mediums of painting and sculpture and range from miniature to monumental scale. His creative aim lies in letting the process direct the outcome: starting with a concept and developing, constructing and expanding it to ultimately achieve a cohesive and captivating result. Working with methods of accumulation, reduction, duplication and transfer, his modus operandi reflects the very reality of human condition. ‘Therein lies the autobiographical aspect of my work, this is the way I see the world around me. We don't know anything, there's nothing before we are born, there's no afterlife, and the more we are trying to grasp for something, it is fading away. If this is the way I see the world I have the feeling my painting should reflect it.’