Vienna-based artist Béatrice Dreux uses simple motifs like a moon, a cloud, or a rainbow, and from there, she develops the forms in a process of layering and detailed surface treatment until they gain an inner strength. For Dreux painting is a language in itself. When she paints, she is not aiming to tell a story, or make some statement about subject matter. Instead it is about texture, gesture, color, and form, and how these elements together on the canvas speak to us directly. The rainbow transforms and can appear as a door or portal, or as something else that breathes and has a life of its own. The motifs are executed in monumental series that combine an interest in spirituality and ancient wisdom with a contemporary, colorful expression. The French-born artist has been in Austria since childhood, and had her institutional debut in 2016 with a solo exhibition at the Lentos Kunstmuseum in Linz. In 2021 she curated the exhibition Beyond the Image at the Salon am Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna.

Text by Jurriaan Benschop