HERVE BREHIER
20190327_104249

Hervé Bréhier doesn’t take the easy way out. When encountering such an artist, our mind can only stay fully alert. He does nothing to please, nor even to displease, he re-transcribes the sensations that he perceives by combining and confronting materials which generate a wave of emotion that reaches out to us. To achieve this, he works with existing materials without ever exaggerating them; he transforms them while keeping them intact. He creates mysterious works using a simple and clear vocabulary and with rigour and sensitivity he reduces them to their purest form. To quote Sylvain Lizon on the subject of Hervé Bréhier’s work, “he experiments and takes risks, like any good artist”. A certitude that can be verified during a visit to his studio, passing from one experiment to another carried out directly on the floor or just arranged along the walls.

Close to minimal art, only the gesture reveals the intention.

Old stones coming from ruins or materials abandoned on a worksite seem to be rehabilitated. Before us, they are metamorphosed by association. The magic of alchemy residing in the tension of opposing forces functions perfectly as it develops a vitality specific to each composition and gives birth to a modulated wave of sensations, bringing us the information that it contains. Nothing happens by chance, everything is well thought out, then thought out again, weighed, calculated from almost nothing within the unstable balance that is creation. Equilibrium of the forces, impressions of time slipping by, a recreation of architectures, or some evanescent drawings, everything lies in the search for the potentials with which the elements confront him. Accordingly, Hervé Bréhier invites us to awaken our senses and for this he experiments with perception within a situation. Each one of his experimental works is reprogramed to create a new piece in order to get as close as possible to the sensation he is seeking. He places the relation we may have with the object’s material into an unfathomable abyss, in the desire to transcend the rationalism of perception that occurs through repetition. His work evokes the mystery of an immediate suggestive force which is also another way of creating poetry.

 

Works

 

Exhibitions

2022
Annexes et Digressions, FRAC Picardie
Galerie Louis Gendre, Chamalières  (Solo show) Catalogue
Février / mars Vidéochroniques, Marseille, France
2021
La Galerie Quatre, Arles, France (Solo show)
2020
Musée Roger Guillot, 7320g, Clermont Ferrand, France
FRAC Auvergne L’art au lycée , Cournon, France
Pic et Pêche, les Ateliers, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2019
NOPOTO, Paris 20°
Silence, bruyant – Galerie Louis Gendre, Chamalières (Solo show) Press releaseCatalogue
Palais de l’Archevêché Ceremony, Quatre artistes Arles, France
2018
Il y a là où aller, La Maisonnette, sur une invitation de e.n.o.s. et l’association SIMAP, Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette, France
ALMA Espace d’art, Paris
Reste l’air et le monde… La collection du FRAC Auvergne, FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Eclairage publique, Greenhouse, Saint-Étienne, France
Botanique, Galerie Louis Gendre, Chamalières (Solo show) Catalogue
2017
FabrikCULTURE, Bâle, Swiss
La Galerie Louis Gendre, Chamalieres
Mainsite Contemporary Art, Norman, USA
Ondes – Porteuses – Situations, galerie Louis Gendre (Solo show)  Press release
Group Show – Galerie Louis Gendre. Press release
2016
La Galerie Quatre Arles, France (Solo show)
PA I Plateforme de création contemporaine, Lumière dépensée Paris
La Couleuvre Saint-Ouen France
2015
Entre autres, La Couleuvre Saint-Ouen, France(Solo show)
Le générique du début, La Serre, Saint-Etienne, France
2014
Résidence Palais Des Paris, Takasaki Japon
La Biennale de Saint-Flour, France
Plateforme Paris 20°
Analogues, Arles, France  (Solo show)
2013
Résidence artistique La Source, Villarceaux, France
2012
La maison des arts de Grand-Quevilly, France
2011
Main d’Œuvre Saint Ouen, Vente aux enchères (expo collective) La Tôlerie espace d’Art contemporain de Clermont-Ferrand, les Peintres/les constructeurs (expo collective)
Galerie du Haut Pavé, Paris Ve, (expo collective)
2009
La Vigie-Art Contemporain, Nîmes, Les Rencontres (expo collective)
2008
Le Grand Atelier, Ecole Supérieure d’Art de Clermont-Ferrand, (expo personnelle)
Salford, Angleterre, (expo collective)
Résidence Est nord est, Canada
2006
Château de Saint-Ouen, Poésie de la banlieue, (expo collective) Ecole Supérieure d’Arts de Brest, (expo personnelle) Immanence, Paris XVe, Le plus petit dénominateur commun, (expo collective)
Nopoto Paris xxe, (expo collective) Main d’Œuvre Saint-Ouen, La part des Choses #3 Still Life (expo collective) Galerie RDV Nantes, La part des Choses #1 Get The Balance Right (collective)
2005
Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Quimper, L’en jeu, (expo collective)
Galerie du Haut Pavé, Paris Ve,, Il est tôt, (expo personnelle)
Le Jour de la sirène, Paris XVe, (expo personnelle)
2004
Villa du Parc, Centre d’Art Contemporain d’Annemasse, Travailler au corps, (expo personnelle)
Résidence au Centre de Sculpture de Montolieu (11)
Paris la Villette, Jeune Création (expo collective)

Education
1998
D.N.S.E.P Ecole Supérieure d’Art de Clermont-Ferrand
1996
D.N.A.P Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Grenoble

Public collections
2016
F.R.A.C Auvergne
2015
Le Parvis Collection Clermont Communauté
2004
Conseil Général de la Seine-Saint-Denis