Opera Gallery presents highlights from French painter Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey’s fervent imagination that bridges Eastern and Western mythologies, re-invigorating fantasy worlds that transcend time and space. His works spin dreamlike narratives of legendary wars, epic romances and heroic odysseys.
‘I loathe anything that is too normal or symmetrical’, notes Roc-Roussey, defending the use of a wide spectrum of dimensions for his paintings. ‘There has to be an underlying fault line in my paintings: a hint of dilation, explosion, swelling. My protagonists are often alone, isolated, separated from the world, closed off and trapped in their daily accoutrements.’
Whether depicting an intrepid horserider throwing herself into battle, a young devadasi dancer in a rapturous act of worship, or a geisha retaining a fascinating composure in the midst of public display, fixed cultural identities are reimagined as fluid forms in the artist’s painterly vision.
What connects these heroines across their rich and varied cultural origins is an emphasis on their strength and self- sufficiency. They remind us of the presence of beauty and dignity, offering us a contrast to the mundanity of the day to day. Roc-Roussey’s works unearth an ancestry between the historical, geographical and the imaginative.
‘Realm of Imagination’ is a testament to the artist’s continued development, and also marks Opera Gallery’s enduring, twenty-year-long relationship with the artist.
More information at operagallery.com.
