Conveying his own fear of ignorance, challenging people’s perceptions of ‘where we came from and where we are going’, Monaco-born artist Patrick Faure presents Agnoiaphobia, a new series of paintings, to art lovers at ACAI Art Gallery (Booth 6.7) at START Art Fair (Saatchi Gallery, London 26 – 29 September 2019).
Building on Socrate’s view that the purpose of humans is to learn, the Agnoiaphobia series confronts the viewer with scenes and creatures that are unexplainable. In doing so, Faure wants to recreate the same confusion that visitors to ancient sites such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey and Peru’s Huaca Prieta might encounter, yet these sites contain messages about our origins and our future. Our inability to understand them and to decipher their warnings across the millennia results in ignorance on the part of humankind. Agnoiaphobia transcribes the deep frustration we all experience when faced with something we are unable to know and understand.
Recently, Patrick Faure had an impressive international exhibition programme where his works were highly acclaimed by visitors, major institutions, and the press. In March 2019, he held a successful solo exhibition in Eskişehir, Turkey, which attracted much national media coverage, before participating in a group show in Venice with Saphira & Ventura Gallery in May. In 2018, his painting Wings of Fascism was shown at Contemporary Istanbul and praised by many major newspapers.
Although Faure’s art is often associated with Surrealism, he states that ‘while the result may be the same, the reflection is very different’ as he finds his inspiration from within the conscious, rather than the subconscious. This approach informed his development of a new visual style called Faurism, defined as ‘visual art that expresses the convergence of dreams, sexual desire, knowledge, and wisdom.’ In his paintings, Faure juxtaposes mythological fantasy with modern man’s condition in the universe to promote questions about our survival and frail existence.
Simultaneously to his participation at START Art Fair, a selection of Faure’s work will also be exhibited in a group show ‘Terra: Internacional Communities’ (14 September – 5 October 2019) at the MIIT – Museo Internazionale Italia Arte in Turin, Italy, organised by Saphira & Ventura Gallery.