Jean-Marc Bustamante

The gallery Vera Munro is proud to present its fifth solo exhibition of JEAN-MARC BUSTAMANTE (1952, Toulouse), one of France’s most acclaimed artists. He was the French representative at the Venice Biennale 2003, and was also present at the VIII, IX and X Documenta in Kassel. His work has been the subject of important solo shows at, among others, Tate Gallery London (1998), Stedelijk van Abbemuseum (1992), Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume Paris (1996) and Kunsthaus Begrenz, Switzerland(2006) . At the moment his work is on view in “Chimerical Horizon”, a major exhibition in Strasbourg with Ed Ruscha.

Jean-Marc Bustamante is trained as a photographer and worked as an assistant to William Klein. In 1978 he began to photograph derelict spaces on the outskirts of Barcelona, devoid of any human presence yet showing evident traces of man’s intervention (building materials, building site signs, half-built constructions), with a framing deliberately eschewing any explicit focus within the composition. In this way, the images are more reliefs with forms and lines reminiscent of abstraction.

These photographs, which the artist calls “tableaux”, are a groundbase on which he articulates his personal artistic vocabulary, expanded from photography and drawing to painting, sculpture and architecture. Disparate vernaculars often merge in Bustamante’s work to create painterly or sculpture objects lacking in any kind of categorisation, thus giving rise to new visual languages.

This exhibition features recent works, questioning the traditional concept of drawing by bringing it closer to three-dimensionality. His Panoramas combine the transparency of Plexiglas with traditionally conceived colour drawings, even making holes in the surface to fuse the image with the background supporting the work.

Bustamante’s work is as wide-ranging as his experimentation is complex. In his personal languages, he explores our most immediate environment, creating mental landscape with a profound poetic meaning. We would be delighted if you would report about our exhibition. Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further information or if you wish an interview with the artist. Bustamante will be present during the installation and the opening.

Jean-Marc Bustamante
New Works