Zoé Byland, “Captured Dreams”
Opening Reception: November 9th, 6-8 pm
November 9th – December 8th, 2019
Haven Gallery is pleased to present “Captured Dreams”, a collection of paintings by Switzerland based artist, Zoé Byland. Bylands narrative portraits are known for her blending of victorian era narratives with surreal motifs. Staunch and poised individuals pose amongst strange weather patterns, animated toys and motifs of magic and illusion. An artist who loves to play with dualities, one may notice how disparate devices playfully bring her compositions to life. Contrasting elements such as her use of black and white, reality with illusion and the past with the present result in hauntingly beautiful images that represent the melding of time itself. Through a shift of focus Byland, is able to create a surrealistic world.
ABOUT Zoé Byland
Zoé Byland is a painter, based in Switzerland. She attended the F+F school for art and media design in Zurich and studied contextual painting at the academy of fine arts in Vienna (class of Muntean/Rosenblum, Prof. Elke Krystufek and Prof. Hans Scheirl). She studied art history and teached at an art school in Vienna. She lives and works in Bern.
“In terms of style and content my paintings are based on elements of vintage photography, film noir, graphic novels, super heroes, tattoos and classical genres of art history. I combine the traditional and the contemporary, the classical and the subcultural.
I like to use subjects from turn-of-the-century portrait photography because they are a timeless style of representation
We are always in the presence of the past but the past only exists in a selective, staged form, altered by memory. I want to create moments in my paintings that elude time and space, in which history and the present day are blended together.
Disguises are another central aspect of my work. My characters never fully reveal their identity; they retain a degree of secrecy, they protect themselves and are simultaneously visible and vulnerable. The viewer’s imagination has enough room to think up their own narrative ideas. An image can be read in a variety of ways and I don’t want to limit this spectrum of interpretation by applying specific meaning. Just like a good story for me a good painting needs an atmosphere that draws you in and defines the genre in which the narrative is taking place.”
