Bernard MAIRESSE “Les Barrils” oil painting on panel

MAIRESE, Bernard (Charleroi, 1957)
Painter, draftsman, watercolorist, monotype artist, and photographer. Trained at Saint-Luc in Tournai, then in photography, drawing, and painting at the Charleroi Academy.
P. d'Harville, G. Vercheval and A. Lemaire. Started as a photographer. As a painter, he notably painted interiors with figures, where the influence of his photographic work remains visible. In most of his works reigns a surreal atmosphere, an atmosphere of alienation. Sometimes combines collage and painting. His interiors exude poetry, dream and mystery and his figures all seem very vulnerable. Places his nudes (usually male) in a rather theatrical way in a hyperrealist environment from which an alienating symbolism emerges. Lighting plays an important role in his paintings.
In the press: " BM moves between photography, watercolors and monotypes. In his photos, he explores a world that is somewhat on the margins of society: young unemployed people, gypsies, street kids. His watercolors, which present young ephebes, at the beginning of their life experience, have a philosophical scope and are somewhat reminiscent of the youth and culture of ancient Greece."
Selected for “Trait/Couleur/Volume 1979”. A
A monograph on his work was published in 1998 by Editions Ars Libris, Brussels. Mentioned in "Artists and Galleries 1997, 1998 and 2000 (4th edition)" and in "Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists".