OFFICIAL OPENING:
Monday 5 January 2015 at 5:00pm
Exhibition to be opened by Dr. Yuliya Karpievitch
EXHIBITION OPEN:
Monday 5 – Saturday 31 January 2015
Monday – Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm
Saturdays 10:00am – 2:00pm
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITY:
Demonstration: Digital Drawing
Saturday 10 January 2015, 10:00am – 4:00pm
MORE INFORMATION:
www.nico-art.fr
www.facebook.com/nico.art.paintings
http://artnico.tumblr.com/
“Since my first painting, my inspiration has come from literary work by Gregory Benford, Arthur Clarke and Stephen Baxter. These authors are scientist and draw motivation for space exploration stories from the cutting edge scientific research. Just like the authors connect the readers with the exciting unknown in the imagination, my paintings try to connect the viewers with the yet inaccessible and unknown cosmos with a high degree of realism. I use art’s ability to enhance sensation and carry them into new imaginary and surreal world.
Freed from gravity and our own limitations, I provide an optimistic travel book in which each painting takes one a little closer to the unknown. I imagine travelling beyond the Earth, through asteroid fields, flying over new planets, orbiting newly forming stars, exploring the centre of our galaxy, or projecting familiar landscapes onto distant galaxies. Halfway between science and science-fiction, my paintings are representations of a realm that may reveal the key to our origins. These representations are fascinating for anyone wondering about the place of mankind in the universe and his future. Curiosity, which is a fundamental part of human nature, has largely contributed to the terrestrial human exploration. It is the curiosity to learn about the unknown that drives the discoveries of extra- and intra-solar systems and combined the curiosity and the knowledge are driving my desire to further illustrate the topic of space exploration. My work modernises a timeless theme of human curiosity that dates back to the first human.
My project for the top gallery illustrates exploration in insolite, isolated and hostile environments far from the Earth that will require human presence. It is a representation of what could future space missions be, namely reaching asteroid fields and landing. Our growing consumption of terrestrial resources along with excessive exploitation in developed countries makes asteroids the key for next generations to find sustainable resources. In the same time, asteroids and comets raise a lot of questions about our origin. They might have supplied bricks for the life on Earth and be the first vestiges of solar systems. In fiction, asteroids play several roles such as places to colonize, resources for mineral extraction but also threats for life on Earth. Nowadays they are considered to extend our technology and understand our origin. My paintings portray the mankind on a solitary journey into the depths of our galaxy. They are snapshot of several stories in isolated distant places and reflect that civilisations have to face isolation at any moment.”
– Nicolas Sarter
IMAGE CREDITS:
Nicolas Sarter
