Paintings of Masters
Quentin Carnaille
1984
Visual artist
Quentin Carnaille was born in Roubaix in 1984. After studying architecture (graduating from the Higher Institute of Architecture in Tournai in 2009), he produced his first pieces in which he incorporated old watch mechanisms. Diverted from their primary vocation, these become the ornaments of jewelry or accessories which, beyond their decorative aspect, already raise the question of time and the relativity of its passage, a recurring theme in the work of the artist.
This first phase of research was followed by a period of intense creativity during which Carnaille diversified his use of watchmaking mechanisms. Freed from their mechanical arrangement, linked together by magnets, they now appear to the eye as real sculptures. This is how the series was born Watchmaking », in which the artist expresses an intimate rhythm and gives his questions a universal scope by turning to the future. Composed of original creations and tributes to certain iconic works, " Watchmaking installs Quentin Carnaille in the artistic landscape. 2013 : exhibitions in Lille and Geneva ; 2014 : Belgium ; 2015 : Luxembourg and Germany ; 2016 : Taiwan, Kuwait, China, United Arab Emirates…
His work then took a new turn. Alongside his sculptural experiments which continue to diversify (Thus " Appearance in which he imprisons watch parts in ice), Quentin Carnaille opens up to new forms of expression through installations and happenings. Logical continuation, extension : these bring Carnaille's work closer to a conceptual minimalism fully expressed in " Introspection ". First work devoid of clockwork, "Introspection » associates a resolutely refined aesthetic to the metaphysical thoughts of the artist and invites the viewer to come back to oneself, at the same time as it encourages a meditation on the human and its origins.
Continuing this momentum, Identity » was born in 2017. This time Carnaille comes out of his studio to « to come down » in the street where his cubes faceted with mirrors will cover for three weeks the faces of the figurative sculptures of the city of Lille. show of force, Identity operates a transformation of commemorative sculptures into contemporary sculptures, thus awakening the public's interest in them. Reflection on otherness, appealing to elementary modes of perception, " Identity provokes an aesthetic and mental shock and constitutes a highlight of Carnaille's production, making him the heir to a series of artists who had, to use Malraux's words, the desire to " bring art to everyone ".
Thus continues Quentin Carnaille's research, somewhere between technical prowess and the desire to put art at the service of a primordial source, that of time and men. ; or how to allow the latter to regard the former no longer as the implacable enemy, but rather as the possible of which they are another expression.