Carol Heft on artist Jean Pierre Bourquin
In an almost perpetually generative state, Jean Pierre Bourquin’s work is saturated with life, fun and energy. An incredibly prolific artist, he is known for using recycled objects such as cereal boxes, packaging, paper plates, and found bits and pieces along with more traditional support materials, with a proclivity for paper. He is as comfortable combining diverse patterns and visual languages as he is with simple, monochromatic, unified forms to celebrate mark, color, pattern and texture. His prints capitalize on the intuitive process that drives his drawings, paintings and photography. The resulting objects are vibrant, magical, and transcend their physical reality bringing the viewer into the spiritual realm of the artist’s vision. There is a vocabulary of favored forms that are his natural companions. Spirals, circles, triangles, overlapping and encrusted surfaces which seem to inhabit and create their own space amid a wide range of materials and sizes. Comfortable with creating objects, “windows”, or sculpture, the artist often pulls the picture plane apart and uses the wall as part of the composition. Regardless of how many layers are involved in the process of a particular piece, Jean Piere Bourquin’s work is always fresh; even the most worn, stressed surfaces undergo inevitable cycles of revitalization.
Carol Heft: HAF editorial
Carol Heft is a New York City based artist and educator. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and her work has been exhibited internationally. She teaches Drawing, Painting, and Art History at several colleges in New York and Pennsylvania, and is represented by the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City.
