JEAN-LUC OLLIVIER AND HIS WORK
From his early childhood, Jean Luc Ollivier, born in 1964, chose art as the way to express his feelings and emotions. Words often didnīt seem good enough or were too unclear to give expression to his thoughts.
From this very early stage, the artist started to develop his own personal style, which was influenced by surrealism, by visionary and fantastic art, in order to treat the themes which concerned him most: people's relationship to themselves and to their environment, subjects he continues to question through his painting.
The allegorical oil and acrylic paintings reflect his predilection for a symbolic language. Besides known symbols and vanitas motives, many other elements of partly obvious and partly subtle significance can be found in his paintings, providing the observer with the freedom to take in the "language of the paintings" and find their own interpretation.
By using a certain colour scheme, that shows a clear dominance of a dark and dull colour combination, he wants to make an impression on the observer on an emotional level, which creates the effect of the painting, even though the meaning canīt be deciphered, in a similar way that music can trigger off emotions within us, even though we cannot make out the words.
In this regard, he is often questioned on the prevailing pessimistic mood of his paintings. To that the artist has responded,
"I donīt see my painting as being pessimistic, rather I try portraying reality my way. I want to give a signal, blaze a trail, provoke and make people think, and maybe with that I am able to make a little contribution to set things in motion. Yet contrary to a convinced pessimist, I do believe, that it is possible to change a lot of things, when we do not take everything just as it is given."
In that sense: Be inspired by his paintings!
© Jean-Luc Ollivier 2006