NATURE, UNSEEN,” BY

L.A.-BASED PAINTER

Sylvain Latendresse

Opens April 21st at Rebecca Molayem Gallery

Latendresse’s brilliantly color-saturated pieces reimagine Central California country landscapes

California Nature, Unseen,” Los Angeles-based painter Sylvain Latendresse’s pop-up exhibition at Rebecca Molayem Gallery, opens with an artist’s reception on Friday, April 21 from 6-9PM. The show will also be on view on Saturday, April 22 from 11AM-6PM. Latendresse is a Quebec native, and the exhibition is co-sponsored by the Quebec Government Office in Los Angeles

Lantendresse has lived in Los Angeles since 2008 where he was instantly mesmerized by its vibrant culture and landscape. He sees Southern California as a “place of constant reinvention and visual stimulus.” Latendresse has painted and been involved with arts and culture throughout his entire professional life – as an artist, a curator, a writer, a critic, and a director of cultural centers and programs. Upon moving to Los Angeles from Canada, his painting practice took a back seat to other pursuits. That changed when the pandemic arrived, giving him the time and space to create new work and bring life force into that cloistered time.

Based on places in Central California that the artists knows and loves, the landscapes that emerged are dreamlike, and sometimes surreal. These enchanted vistas are realized with rich and often Fauvist colors – including a masterful use of yellow and purple hues – and scintillating dappled textures. Latendresse paints only with palette knives, and the rich swaths of acrylic paint put forth a tactile quality suggesting you are physically entering into the spaces he has imagined.

Latendresse says, “Some people compare the painting to impressionism, pointillism, or even expressionism. And while I understand the comparison, for me the true inspiration lies elsewhere. It was photography, specifically the reference images I took in the rolling hillsides of the central California coast, that became my springboard into a freshly perceived—and unperceived reality. During the existential crisis of the pandemic, these paintings were my personal exploration into the true nature of reality—the seen and unseen, the multiplicity of meanings which merge and collide, and can only be described as consciousness.”

About the artist:

In 2008, I moved to Los Angeles and found myself mesmerized by the vibrant culture and landscape. I am happy to call California home, a place of constant reinvention and visual stimulus. A Quebec native, I have worked in Montreal as a painter, visual artist, independent curator, contemporary art consultant, writer, and critic. After receiving my bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Quebec in Montreal, I focused my studies on painting and went on to complete a master’s degree in Art History. I wrote my master’s thesis on the influential German artist Joseph Beuys. As President of the board council of Action Art Actuel, an artist’s Centre, I spent seven years curating exhibitions, supporting membership, and launching an international residency exchange with Queretaro, Mexico. As an art critic and consultant, I worked for the most prominent corporate art collection in Canada, Loto-Quebec Art Collection, and wrote for all the major Quebec Art magazines such as Vies des Arts, Esse, Etc Montreal, and Spirale. In parallel with my art career, I have also been actively involved in the Quebec cultural scene for more than 35 years. I served as Assistant Director at the Montreal International Film Market, an event held in conjunction with the Montreal World Film Festival as well as an international liaison for the Rendez-vous du Cinema Quebecois and Quebec Culture Days.