William Shearburn Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Belgian artist Jean-Baptiste Bernadet.  

An exceptional colorist, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet constructs atmospheric worlds in his paintings, where nature, sensation, and the psyche are front and center. In a carefully constructed in-between zone bounded by abstraction and landscape painting, his incandescent oranges, full, candid purples, sulfurous yellows, faded pale greens, and deep grays produce worlds where a landscape, its unique memory, and the imagination interact, directed by the eye and the mind. In Jean-Baptiste Bernadet’s work, the act of looking, which is both transitory and continual, melancholic and elated, joins feeling, which is here envisioned as a series of emotions, a patchwork of romantic recollections and introspections, whirling perceptions inspired by the passage of time. In his intimate relationship to memory and his deep desire to transcend linear time, the work of Jean-Baptiste Bernadet is similar to the Proustian spirit. Ultimately, the purpose of his painting is painting itself, all the while giving viewers the freedom of projecting their own experiences onto the surface. 

Born in Paris in 1978, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet lives and works in Brussels, and was artist-in-residence at Triangle Studios in Brooklyn in 2012, APT Studios in Brooklyn in 2011, and Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, in 2010. His solo exhibitions include, among others, Musées de la Citadelle de Villefranche-sur-Mer (2023), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen (2020), Almine Rech in Brussels (2022, 2020, 2016), Marfa Book Company in Marfa, Texas (2019, 2015, 2013), Alon Segev in Tel Aviv (2019, 2017), Almine Rech in Paris and Mascota in Mexico (2018), Valentin in Paris (2021, 2017, 2015), Michael Jon & Alan in Miami (2017), Almine Rech Gallery in London (2016), Retrospective in Hudson, NY, American Contemporary in New York City, Rod Barton in London (2014), Karma in New York City (2014), Torri in Paris, Renwick in New York City (2011), the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (2010). 

Works by the artist are included in the permanent collections of Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain / Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Roveretto, MAC VAL Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Collection des Arts Plastiques de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Mac’s Musée des Arts Contemporains de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Thalie Foundation, amongst others. 

This exhibition is in collaboration with Parapet/Real Humans.