Baptiste Laurent - Nuage qui coule, 2019 XXL (Cave serie)

Nuage qui coule, 2019, XXL, 215x155cm acrylic and posca on canvas.
Signed on the reverse. Sold unframed and shipped rolled.

The Cave series draws inspiration from prehistoric cave paintings, returning to the origins of image-making, where gesture, matter and the trace of human presence converge.
The paintings explore the materiality of paint through layers, textures, cracks and drips. Cracked surfaces reveal the tension within the material, while the paint flows, descends and accumulates under the force of gravity. Together, these effects evoke geological formations slowly shaped by time, recalling clouds or the traces left by the sea on sand. Ambiguous landscapes emerge, dissolve and transform, allowing the eye to wander and lose itself.
Contemplating these works becomes an experience in itself. Like observing clouds, eroded rocks or a receding tide, the viewer discovers shifting shapes and fleeting associations. The painting does not impose a fixed image but opens up a space for imagination and prolonged looking.
Over these fluid, fractured surfaces, black Posca lines introduce a contrasting graphic language, recalling comic books and their bold outlines. The tension between the spontaneity of flowing paint, the fragility of cracked surfaces and the precision of the black line brings together abstraction and drawing, accident and control, ancient gestures and contemporary visual culture.
In Cave, painting becomes a territory to explore: a living, ever-changing landscape where matter, gravity and the gaze interact.

Bio artiste/
Baptiste Laurent (1980, Nantes) is a visual artist who lives and works
in Madrid and Paris.
He has exhibited at various artistic and cultural institutions,
including the Institut français de Madrid, Le Palais de Tokyo, Galeria
La Caja, Esquina Nua, Espacio Seara, Gazzambo Gallery, Alliance
française, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Galeria FL.
His traditional medium is painting, but he also works in sculpture
and develops projects with a strong literary, social and
anthropological component.
In his latest publications and exhibitions, "Conversaciones y
puñetazos", "Mauvaises Tournures", "Bajo el Mismo Mar" and "Exit",
he has repeatedly experimented with collaborative creative work
with other visual artists and literary authors.
As an anti-academic and eclectic artist, he likes to syncretise
pictorial styles, oscillating between neo-figurative narrative, graphic
painting and expressionist abstraction.
Founder of the 'Latolier' shared studio in Madrid's Usera district, he
leads a dynamic community of Spanish and international visual
artists.