S H A P E I T B B
In his work, Sebastien Thebault-Belarra develops abstract geometric shapes from observations of elements drawn from the real world. He compiles during his travels billboards, road and railway signs, architectural elements and graphic elements collected here and there in the press. A material that it will re-arrange at the option of formal “empiries” until reaching a satisfactory equilibrium.
His paintings are often designed in a serial manner, treating the same subject in parallel on several identical frames, which he assembles later to produce alternative combinations. By appropriating, multiplying and intertwining the motifs of bands, squares, circles and triangles as well as some residual forms of the history of art and design, Sebastien Thebault-Belarra generates his work “mecha-sensitive”.
His paintings have beaches strictly contained in blocks whose organization tends to twist the pictorial into sculptural, sometimes into illusion but still more by the strength and presence of these “visual objects”. More than clinging, they will be manipulated and arranged in the space-time of their exhibition, considering in the same way the supports and the surfaces like so many places composed of objects. In this, Sebastien cleverly fuses the subject-painting intended for the eyes with the object-painting intended for the wall.
Through his dimensional and minimalist exploration, Sebastien Thebault-Belarra has developed a passionately referenced personal pictorial vocabulary.
MH. Garcia, A. Pierné, J. Coldefy for 5UN7, January 2019.