Planet Caravan, 2024 (left) and Karma (Charisma), 2023 (right)
We sail through endless skies…
Referencing the cult classic song from Black Sabbath, known for its intense atmospherics and mind-arresting lyricism about floating through the universe, the titular work of the exhibition Planet Caravan tempos the spirit of the presentation.
A body is captured in abeyance, dispersed centrally in the pictorial space of sumptuous warm tones which envelop the sparse scene. Mellifluous, yet ambiguous, the figure is layered upon reduced motifs of the everyday, whose familiarity is gently placed in question: a hammock becomes allusive of angelic wings, a deep cloud of darkened blue hues enfolds the figure against the all-encompassing fiery sky, almost as if they were being subsumed into interstellar depths, whilst one is left surmising if the structure in the background is truly a reference to the physicality of a bridge, or if something rather more psychological is being materialised here. The figure, contorted and in motion, could be flying, falling or in simple somnolent suspense: in irresolvable movements and ambiguity, memories, biographical moments and narrated stories meld to form a dreamlike sequence whose peace seems to be precarious.
Mon Repos, 2024 (left), Blue Emperor Black Owl, 2024 (center), and Dauerwellen, 2021 (right)
The work is emblematic of de Verteuil’s assemblages of the painted field, in a manner which fuses discordant corporeal and cognitive phenomena. Firmly anchored in present-day life—photographically recorded moments from travels and daily life serve as a template—his artistic process is instinctive; his works strike a balance between drama and stillness reminiscent of early gothic iconography, whilst remaining hypermodern through their mundane, familiar references. The diversity of works comprising the exhibition display de Verteuil’s adept methodological maneuvering and weaving of the tradition of painting into new, transcendent, and often seemingly impossible composites.
Nur ein Kurzen Augenblick, 2023 (left) and Das Ganze und noch ein Übriges, 2023 (right)
Much like its namesake, the exhibition Planet Caravan showcases the lush, chromatic ability of Justin de Verteuil to cultivate diverse, evocative pictorial and emotional scapes beyond the realms of the earthly mundane. While fascinating with their colourfulness, luminosity and mysteriousness, de Verteuil’s works summon sensual responses to the tensions between the world’s simultaneous ordinariness and unfamiliarity.
