Artist :Olivier Lamboray
Genre : Paintings
Period : March 1 till April 15 Everyday, 10.00AM
till Midnight
Location : Café des Artistes, Jalan Bisma 9X, Ubud
Olivier Lamboray is a Belgian artist resident in Bali. He
has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Belgium, Thailand
and Indonesia. In his current exhibition, ‘Caress of
the Soul’, at the Café des Artistes, Lamboray
ably demonstrates his reputation as a Surrealist artist who
skillfully combines European painting techniques with the
subtlety and richness of Asian imagery. Lamboray’s work
follows the strong tradition of Western Surrealism, in-particular
the captivating and unusual art of Rene Magritte.
Magritte is probably Belgium’s best known artist. He
was born in 1898 and studied art in Brussels. He moved to
Paris and participated in the first group exhibition of Surrealist
painting, in 1928. Within the milieu of the Parisian Surrealists,
Magritte was able to develop his own unmistakable personal
style. He removed realistically delineated people and objects
from their habitual context and relocated them in a surprising
optical and circumstantial combination. In his work Magritte
examined the relationship between art and imitation, concept
and depiction, picture and image, and inner and outer view.
Magritte is regarded as one of the most supreme Surrealist
painters.
The objective of the Surrealist painters was to make accessible
to art the realms of the unconscious, irrational, and imaginary.
Two basic principles underlay Surrealist aesthetics. The principle
of combining alien elements to cause a ‘poetic spark’,
and, the principle of ‘automatism’ through which
we express in words, writing, or in any other form, the actual
functioning of thought. Thoughts not dictated by reason, and
any aesthetical or ethical deliberation. The Surrealists were
influenced by psychoanalysis and their paintings are noted
for their dream-like quality, however, they held that a work
of art did not spring from memory or the interpretation of
a dream, but was in itself a dream, the creation of a dream
through the materials of art.
In his exhibition, Olivier Lamboray presents a collection
of paintings in-which intriguing and unexpected images coincide,
and create that ‘poetic spark’ much admired by
the Surrealists. “In search of deeper realities”,
Lamboray says, “I aim to penetrate the fantasy of the
mind and the beauty of the Balinese culture. The ceremonies,
offerings, gamelan sounds and incense smells give me daily
inspiration to paint”. Calling on a personal repertoire
of symbolic images, such as Balinese dancers and temples,
exotic animals and fruits, umbrellas and banners, planets
and moons, Lamboray creates tranquil and involving paintings
that depict fantasies of the mind. Through puzzling and alluring
images, the mind is beguiled by unusual and evocative scenes
of a mysterious Bali that contains all the fascinating suggestiveness
of a dream.
Most of Lamboray’s paintings are located in a vibrant
blue space. The quality of light is luminous and it creates
a mysterious atmosphere. In works such as ‘My Love for
you’, this blue space has a theatrical quality echoing
the proscenium arch and performance space of a theatre stage.
On this stage are positioned the inexplicable characters of
a dream. A Balinese temple dancer is observed by a parrot
sitting under an umbrella on top of a floating moon. In the
far distance another dancer offers the magical, and symbolic,
Manggis fruit. A ‘scrim’ of fluffy white clouds
backgrounds the scene. ‘Manggis Heaven’ dispenses
with theatricality and places the same Balinese dancers, who
are frolicking with some giant Manggis fruit, in the same
nebulous blue space complete with the same clouds. Unexpected
humor appears in the painting ‘Conception’. Two
tourist penguins, on holiday in Bali, are watching a Balinese
dancer cavort with his enormous Manggis fruit. In the background,
rising through the clouds, is an ominous red moon. It is fascinating
that Lamboray uses the same symbols over and over again, to
the extent that they are executed almost identically in each
painting. These symbols clearly have meaning for the artist,
but, as observers, it is pointless for us to analyze them.
We must go with our ‘gut’ reaction and appreciate
the paintings in a Surrealistic manner, as they resonate in
our subconscious.
What is interesting about Lamboray’s work is that his
freedom of expressive fantasy is not anarchic, but, on-the-other-hand
is contemplative. The works are in harmony with nature and
the environment. They are non-critical and attempt to induce
a sense of peace and happiness. In typical Surrealist style
the works remain open for individual interpretation. Lamboray’s
paintings are a dreamscape of Bali. They are not what we see,
but, what we imagine.
