Olivier Verneau
For several months now, in spite of himself and no doubt in connection with the current anxiety-inducing climate, Olivier Verneau's project has revolved around the idea of shelter, of a material that has become carapace, skin, and undeniably protection... While he admits he has always enjoyed "roughing up" the earth, his latest works this time push the material to its most extreme limits, experimenting with a fragility verging on rupture. This idea, or common thread, runs through all the raw yet enveloping works on display at C14-PARIS.
His primary desire is to work the earth with violence, in its retrenchments and tremors, to the point of possible tearing. This desire for a carnal, organic and unstructured work was soon followed by the need for a method, an organization and a refuge. To this end, the pieces are built around a plant framework, a woody structure that leaves its mark before disappearing in the fire, like a presence in the material, an obvious trace of life. They are then pushed to the point of exhaustion, to the point of their own need to find asylum, or to be asylums themselves.
Olivier Verneau has chosen to bring these pieces together without imposing a single meaning, instead letting us sway between chaos and comfort, in a constant randomness that echoes the living. JMD
Born in 1969. Lives and works in Barre-des-Cévennes (Lozère).
TRAINING
- 2004-06: CNIFOP training course, Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye (Nièvre).
EXHIBITIONS
- 2020 : Les Journées de la céramique, Saint-Sulpice, Paris - Group show, Galerie Grès, Paris - 2018 : Duo show with T. Pesle, Église de Molezon (Lozère) - Duo show with B. Long, Le Lavoir, Clamart (Île-de-France) - Céramique 14, Salon de céramique contemporaine, Paris - 2017: Les Journées de la céramique, Saint-Sulpice, Paris.
