Jacques Flèchemuller
It's Not Any House You Know: New Myths for a Changing Planet
March 6, 2019 to March 30, 2019
Opening reception March 6th from 6-9 PM

In conjunction with the recent release of Spencer Beebe’s book, It’s Not Any House You Know: New Myths for a Changing Planet, published by Ecotrust, PDX CONTEMPORARY ART presents an exhibition of  paintings by Jacques Flèchemuller— many of which were published in the book.

In fall 2017, longtime friends Jacques Flèchemuller and Spencer Beebe went fishing— Flèchemuller painted and Beebe wrote. Through this exchange of time, energy and place, a book emerged, combining Flèchemuller’s wry humor with Beebe’s parables. The book includes ten true stories that, as Beebe describes, “…add up to a fresh narrative describing a ‘nature state’ (versus a ‘nation state’) to stir the human imagination towards a fresh myth of people and planet. It’s humorous, yes, yet deadly serious with the aim of becoming a revolutionary, disruptive classic and save the world. To do so we have to have fun.”

Flèchemuller’s immediate paintings in oil and gouache line the pages of the book with humorous images— penguins reading books,  a bird with an extraordinarily long neck, and an unenthusiastic, unfazed human falling down a waterfall. It’s through these quick gestures and the absurd that Flèchemuller finds relief from the day to day. Many of the artist’s works are painted on found images with thickly applied gouache with the intention of making images that exude his witty sense of humor and provoke a reaction from the viewer.

Flèchemuller is a classically trained painter and graduate of the École des Beaux Arts de Paris and currently splits his time between Brooklyn, New York, and the South of France, where the artist spends nearly every moment painting. Flèchemuller's work is held in prominent collections internationally including the Musse d'Art Moderne (Paris, France), Janco Dada Musuem (Hof-Hacarmel, Isreal), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), among others.

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PDX Contemporary Art

Tuesday-Saturday 11AM-6PM

Monday & Sunday Closed