Head to the Normandy coast to discover the Cyril Guernieri Gallery nestled between the narrow streets of the small port of Honfleur and its exhibition which highlights the bestiary of Pierre-Luc Bartoli which is populated by dogs, octopuses and moray eels. At home, the moray eels attack the octopuses in an inextricable tangle, the sea urchins stand proudly on the coasts and the dogs are at bay.

Pierre-Luc Bartoli, born in Aix en Provence in 1973, was immersed in painting from a very young age thanks to an art lover father. Self-taught, Pierre-Luc Bartoli strived to master traditional techniques to better avoid the rules. He thus retains his full freedom as a creator. Because for him, the danger lies in virtuosity, including his own counter-technique. He dares to constantly question himself. But despite this attraction to experimentation and accident, his artistic journey is coherent, made of back and forth journeys towards old motifs, old techniques that he constantly revisits and rewrites.

Facing the canvas or the wooden panel, he lets himself be guided by the brush, the color, the material... and seeks a state of letting go. The result is necessarily fragile. But it is from this fragility that the work draws its power. This does not caress the eye, it captures it. It is difficult to detach yourself from it, impossible to ignore it. The gaze is trapped. He offers a painting with strong gestures, worked on material, instinctive. Without narrative or concept, sometimes disturbing...his work never leaves one indifferent.

“Painting is a kind of quest. A quest to escape our human condition and, thereby, to give meaning to things.”

Check out our video of the gallery's inaugural exhibition

CYRIL GUERNIERI GALLERY
Until August 31, 2024
39 rue du dauphin, 14600 Honfleur
Frédéric Sourdeix Tel: +33 6 76 73 88 71 frederic@galerieguernieri.com www.galerieguernieri.com