It is challenging to find artistic works that can identify with both, the urbanite identity as well as the taste of the millennial generation. Challenging, but not impossible! Such is the case of the work of French visual artist Guillaume Bottazzi.
Known since 1992 for his large scale works displayed in public spaces in major cities, the Bottazzi style is a peaceful return to traditional canons of shapes and colors after the successive countercultural scuffles which involved the emergence of postmodernism. His outdoor works are consistently integrated into their surroundings. The warm interaction of the artistic project with the public eye turns his pieces into sensory events that have revolutionized the meaning of the urban environment for those who inhabit it or move through it on a daily basis.
The surfaces and volumes—in which the tangential friction of the design takes away any possibility of chaos from the creative inspiration—provoke a state of laxity in the viewer, that counteracts the turbulence of city life. Bottazzi’s playful abstraction has a sense of infinitude in which the harmony of colors enhances the whimsical shapes. With great dexterity, the artist achieves a surprising transparency that inevitably travels through the retina to generate comfort zones in the viewer’s psyche.
Many are the reasons for Bottazzi’s popularity, which have led the prestigious Artiscope Gallery in Brussels to organize the personal exhibition Guillaume Bottazzi – Free Creations 2016, which will allow the public to view up close the art of this talented painter through 12 of his most recent works.
The exhibit, which opens on October 3, 2016, has generated great expectations. The anticipation for the show is not surprising when one takes into account the impact of the artist’s interventions in the urban scene. The sensuality of his ethereal images on walls, buildings, and buses brings a restorative effect, encouraging the life of communities and stimulating the creative perception of the citizens.
Guillaume Bottazzi was born in 1971. By the age of 17 he had decided to devote his life entirely to the visual arts. He studied in Florence, Italy, and upon returning to France, the Department of Cultural Affairs offered him financial support to open a personal studio. Since, he has designed more than 40 artworks on public spaces, and his work has been admired in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
In 2004, the artist set up residence in Japan. The impact of his new cultural context has informed his style through the influence of the prevalent minimalism that characterizes oriental design—which can be seen in his proposals—and with new philosophical concepts, which have become new sources of inspiration in his art.
Bottazzi‘s relationship with the Artiscope gallery has been instrumental in the dissemination of his work. The Belgian art dealers, specializing in American and European artists, have worked with various emerging artists that have gone on to become influential symbols of our cultural landscape, such as Alighiero Boetti, Giuseppe Penone, and Michelangelo Pistoletto, precursors of Arte Povera, or Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi and Mimmo Paladino, key representatives of the the European Trans-garde movement.
Guillaume Bottazzi – Free Creations 2016 will run until October 29 in the Artiscope Gallery. ■
