Olivier Remy

How do you represent a country whose representation has been oversaturated by the combined boom in tourism and social media?
How can we escape the postcard, the already seen, the overseen?
This is the question that still bothers me often in Iceland (more than anywhere else) and the landscapes are the big losers in this avalanche of images (not to mention the inhabitants who are simply absent from most of the representations).

Painter Olivier Rémy's proposal radically shifts the subject matter, since he's never been to Iceland. Fascinated by one of those countless wallpapers that appear unbidden, he began painting inspired by them before gradually freeing himself from these models.
His Iceland is therefore a fantasy Iceland, recomposed, reminiscent of a dream, with its share of shifts and transpositions. His canvases are of a singular thickness - Olivier Rémy mixes recycled sawdust from his construction sites (he is also a carpenter and theater designer), wood glue and acrylic paint, a local echo of the use of lava and ashes of Birgir Breiddal exhibited this summer - the lines and hues of the landscapes are familiar and yet shifted towards a slight strangeness.
Like any painting, this work must be confronted visually.
Ísland exhibits 4 paintings from this series.

Olivier Rémy paints to music. His playlist is very varied: Aka Moon, Nérija, Steve Coleman, Ashley Henry, Kepone, No Means No, Fugazi, Shellac, Tool, Sandra Nkaké, Sampa the Great.