PAUL DE FLERS

‘Isolation is not a place, but a condition.’ This reflective line from Nicolas Bouvier’s novel Le Poisson-Scorpion serves as a central theme in this new body of work from Paul de Flers. Bouvier’s narrative of exile and introspection on the remote Rodrigues Island finds a visual counterpart in de Flers’ paintings, which are set in the tropical paradise of Pico, at the edge of the Azores archipelago. However, this paradise, much like the island in Bouvier’s novel, is both a physical and psychological space where characters confront their inner selves.

The artist creates intimate scenes of alienation in remote and unknown settings, where there is no reference to time or the identities. His characters await the unrevealed, gazing in unspecified directions. What has captured their attention? The tension within these scenes is so profound that it extends beyond the canvas, drawing viewers into an inward-looking dialogue with de Flers’ blurry figures. De Flers makes the contours and perspectives disappear, extending our gaze to feel the dissolving of colours and find the hidden shapes within the oil.

— Natalia Gierowska, political scientist and art critic