theArtist

1.Vénus, 2009 acrylic and sand on canvas 47x47 in. /120x120 cm. 2.Distances, 2009 acrylic and sand on canvas 66x52 in. /168x133 cm. 3.Au revoir, 2010 acrylic and sand on canvas 52x66 in. /133x168 cm. 4.Chacun pour soi, 2009 acrylic and sand on canvas 52x42 in. /133x109 cm. 5.Traces laissées, 2009 Watercolor and acrylic and shell on Arches paper 8x12,5 in. /20x31,5 cm. 6.Doute ou la panne, 2009 acrylic and sand and fibers on canvas 30x40 in. /76x102 cm.

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A painting in between two worlds In his artistic expression: Olivier D uses each component (materials, pigments, substrates, models) to express topics that haunt his mind. His works are filled with hidden senses and deep messages, the ones of human sensibility confronted with the shocks provoked by his own development. The thick and liquid materials express the artist’s mixed origins and the shadow of his exiled ancestors. Born in France from a French West Indian mother and a French continental father, Olivier D draws his artistic appeal from his grandparents, who where themselves renowned artists. Symbolism of waters which separate territories, expression of the isolation due to the specificity of the islands, characterize Olivier D’s paintings. Just as Miquel Barceló, whom he admires the work and path, Olivier D integrates the grounds on which he walks in his paintings. Any outside material, which is natural or synthetic, that he has come across on his journey, is integrated into the paint in order to participate fully in the artistic expression. “I have no purely established roots, I do not belong to well defined race, and I am forced to fit as being a part of a whole. The experiment, the movement, the change, the nomadism are at the same time my assets and my weaknesses.” says Olivier D. To paint the sand, the sea, their border is the only means that this 46-year-old self-taught artist has found to fix the limits of his world. These limits of which he is in search to understand who he is. The thickness and the strength of its colors tell, with its several coats of paint, the moods of the human being confronted with the diverse stages of his life. Just as Nicolas de Staël, his diverse interventions on the canvas risk at any time to upset the precarious balance which he has already painted earlier. It is from the deepest part of his being, sometimes tapped, sometimes excited from which is born Olivier D’s work. An intimate, immodest and without concession painting, which approaches the taboo subjects of the contemporary man faced with his close relations and his spiritual environment. (Hélène Filipecki Director of H+O apartgallery Gallery of Contemporary Art /www.hoapartgallery.com)