BERNARD OLLIS
Paris Considered

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Bernard Ollis translates the cultural vigour and dynamism through his Parisian panoramas of Paris Considered. Culminating in an intuitive visual journey transcending the evocative experience of a city host to a historical tradition of artistic influence and inspiration. Transmitting between Paris and Sydney, Ollis quintessentially engages the heightened sensory experience of a geographical displacement. Tapping into the metropolitan vivacity Paris Considered rouses pictorial meanderings of the curious pedestrian. Bending the laws of perspective in a submission to Ollis' quirk and unusual insights in exposing the complexities beyond the cliche.

 

Paris Considered is a deepening into an evolving and metamorphic conversation Bernard Ollis instigated with the Parisian landscape since the 1970s. Likened to the intrinsic nuances of an intellectual dialogue shared with an old friend, Paris continually divulges shifting interpretations. Superseding the naivety of the tourist condition, Ollis retains a fresh hyper-attention of experience as a travelling artist. The luminous light and reflections crafted through Ollis's mastery of his oil pastels entice the viewer's gaze beyond the physicality, inciting a visual experience. Where employed, Ollis's motif of the window does not leave you standing stagnant on the edge of a metaphor; rather a pull draws you through the floating and malleable perspective. Extending a multi-faceted perspective intensifies this hovering spatial awareness.

 

Theatrical performances of twists challenge the conventional psychological conception in depicting pictorial space. Engaging the peripheral and anti-postcard scenes heightens the richness in miscellaneous experience. Attuned to the colour, light and architecture of his surroundings, Ollis' canvases embody the Parisian lifestyle. In enigmatic charisma, Paris Considered confesses hidden subtleties to the lingering observer.

Through Bernard Ollis' comparative investigation of visiting residencies facilitate an affinity of exotericism and cultural indulgences. Elastic tensions are strung between the dualism of geographical polarising localities of Australia and France. Paris Considered is Ollis' comedie humaine of Paris beyond the streetscape into its pulsating nucleus. In the artist's own words:

 

"Outsiders have traditionally made important observations about new places and Paris has had a lions share of interpretations from Brett Whiteley to Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemmingway to Woody Allen. I am just following in the path of that great tradition." - Bernard Ollis

View Previous Work by Bernard Ollis
Incognito 2008
Journey's through Italy and Egypt 2009
Paris Revisited 2011

For further information, please email ng@ngart.com.au