Olivier Deprez

Olivier Deprez (1974, BE) is an observer of our suburban environments, which he dissects and analyses through his drawings and paintings. Vital to his approach is the examination of structures in images, their meaning and in particular the power structures inscribed in them.

By meditating on modern suburbia his work invites the spectator to dialogue with this very large but neglected part of our society. The vast majority of people nowadays live in suburban areas. His work is about noticing this new environment for mankind, which is so obvious it is overlooked in our iconographies.

The basis for his images lies in sketches and notes made on various locations.

These places remain as such recognizable but they are never translated directly into paint. Through a number of studies the artist flattens out small details, so that his images acquire a strange anonymity. The goal is not physical likeness, but the selection of certain key visual elements. Rather than simply recreating he is highlighting the underlying geometry of forms by playing with abstraction, colour and perspective.

Objects are stripped from their original context and inserted into an artificial setting. They become archetypes or symbols used in a world that is not their own.

By creating a subtle balance between description and abstraction in his works (drawings and paintings) he is challenging our current understanding of suburbia as to provoke a reconsideration of these al to familiar places and the objects that inhabit it.