Jean-Baptiste Bernadet and Benoit Platéus

Sea Level


London, Savile Row

  • , Untitled (Black Paintings), 2016
    Oil on canvas, artist’s frame (4 paintings 100 x 150 cm)
  • , Untitled (Black Paintings), 2016
    Oil on canvas, artist’s frame (4 paintings 100 x 150 cm)
  • , Untitled (Black Paintings), 2016
    Oil on canvas, artist’s frame (4 paintings 100 x 150 cm)
  • , Untitled (Black Paintings), 2016
    Oil on canvas, artist’s frame (4 paintings 100 x 150 cm)
  • , Untitled (Grey Matters LA-AR-03), 2015
    Oil on palette paper, Perspex frame
    31,5 x 41,5 cm
    12 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
  • , Untitled (Grey Matters LA-AR-04), 2015
    Oil on palette paper, Perspex frame
    31,5 x 41,5 cm
    12 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
  • , Untitled (Grey Matters LA-AR-05), 2015
    Oil on palette paper, Perspex frame
    31,5 x 41,5 cm
    12 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
  • , Untitled (Grey Matters LA-AR-06), 2015
    Oil on palette paper, Perspex frame
    31,5 x 41,5 cm
    12 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
  • , Untitled (Grey Matters LA-AR-08), 2015
    Oil on palette paper, Perspex frame
    31,5 x 41,5 cm
    12 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    29 x 14 x 9 cm
    11 3/8 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    26 x 15 x 15 cm
  • Kodak Flexicolor, 2016
    Urethane
    32 x 14 x 14 cm
  • , Ilford, 2015
    Urethane
    21 x 8 x 7 cm
    8 1/4 x 3 1/8 x 2 3/4 inches
  • , Fuji Hunt, 2015
    Urethane
    13 x 5 x 4 cm
    5 1/8 x 2 x 1 5/8 inches
  • , Fuji Hunt, 2011
    Urethane
    24 x 15 x 8 cm
    9 1/2 x 5 7/8 x 3 1/8 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    24 x 8 x 8 cm
    9 1/2 x 3 1/8 x 3 1/8 inches
  • , Ilford, 2015
    Urethane
    21 x 8 x 7 cm
    8 1/4 x 3 1/8 x 2 3/4 inches
  • , Fuji Hunt, 2015
    Fuji Hunt, 2015
    Urethane
    24 x 15 x 8 cm
    9 1/2 x 5 7/8 x 3 1/8 inches
  • , Kodak, 2015
    Urethane
    13 x 12 x 9 cm
    5 1/8 x 4 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    29 x 14 x 9 cm
    11 3/8 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
  • , Ilford, 2015
    Urethane
    21 x 8 x 7 cm
    8 1/4 x 3 1/8 x 2 3/4 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    32 x 15 x 15 cm
    12 5/8 x 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    32 x 15 x 15 cm
    12 5/8 x 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches
  • , Kodak Flexicolor, 2015
    Urethane
    24 x 8 x 8 cm
    9 1/2 x 3 1/8 x 3 1/8 inches

Press release

“Sea levels will rise, experts warn, and it’s not going to stop.”
—LA Times, August 27, 2015

The sea level can be used as a supposedly stable reference to measure altitude, but, in reality, it is a fluctuating point of reference as its value varies with time and space. While sea level fluctuations often hit newspaper headlines, raising alarm of coastal areas being submerged, they remind us above all of the elusive nature of any point of origin. More than just the coast, rising water levels engulf any claim for the ‘original’.

The fluidity of shapes and their inevitably temporary nature are central to the new paintings presented by Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, partnered with sculptures by Benoît Platéus. Initiated during a residency in Los Angeles during the spring of 2015, Bernadet’s Black Paintings reintroduce the artist’s earlier use of the color black. While the title of the series refers to Ad Reinhardt’s black monochromes, Bernadet’s paintings function…


Artists