Guy Oberson

1960, Swiss

Based in Switzerland

      Follow    Following

“Art enables me to poetically restore my relationship with intimacy, otherness and the sacred. […] Being an artist is above all a daily attempt to contribute to the freedom of the gaze, autonomy of thought, and the retransmission of energy and beauty.”

The contemporary paintings of the artist Guy Oberson, produced in black chalk or in oil, plunge the observer into an...

See more

Check out the artist’s video interview at his studio

Guy Oberson

1960, Swiss

      Follow    Following

Portraits

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Rodolphe

    140 × 120 cm

    $9,590.75

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Chanel Watchmaking

    80 × 120 cm

    $5,994.22

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Régine D.

    108 × 88 cm

    $6,321.18

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Awakening in Mongolia

    80 × 120 cm

    $5,994.22

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Norah

    160 × 130 cm

    $10,898.58

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Nancy

    108 × 88 cm

    Sold

Bookmark Bookmarked

Rodolphe

140 × 120 cm

$9,590.75

Bookmark Bookmarked

Chanel Watchmaking

80 × 120 cm

$5,994.22

Bookmark Bookmarked

Régine D.

108 × 88 cm

$6,321.18

Bookmark Bookmarked

Awakening in Mongolia

80 × 120 cm

$5,994.22

Bookmark Bookmarked

Norah

160 × 130 cm

$10,898.58

Bookmark Bookmarked

Nancy

108 × 88 cm

Sold

Trees

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Tree in the wind

    59 × 79 cm

    $4,359.43

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Are we the last ones?

    70 × 100 cm

    $5,122.33

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Tree

    68 × 97 cm

    $5,122.33

  • Bookmark Bookmarked

    Arbre fragment 1

    60 × 70 cm

    Sold

Bookmark Bookmarked

Tree in the wind

59 × 79 cm

$4,359.43

Bookmark Bookmarked

Are we the last ones?

70 × 100 cm

$5,122.33

Bookmark Bookmarked

Tree

68 × 97 cm

$5,122.33

Bookmark Bookmarked

Arbre fragment 1

60 × 70 cm

Sold

Biography

The contemporary paintings of the artist Guy Oberson, produced in black chalk or in oil, plunge the observer into an ambiguous and timeless universe. Figurative and abstract themes confront and complement each other in the work by this Swiss painter. 

A diverse, non-traditional route  

Guy Oberson was born in 1960 in Billens, a village in the Friborg countryside in Switzerland. Despite the drawbacks of an environment that only moderately welcomed his artistic leanings, the painter would always feel a strong link with the place he came from, and which influenced his attachment to nature. In 1979 he left his native country to go to Rapperswil in the canton of St Gallen, where he took a course in restoring murals, and then he worked in the socio-educational field. 

During this period he visited the Collection of Art Brut in Lausanne and he was very moved by it, declaring: “I was totally fascinated by a universe which touches on the madness that I encountered in my social work. I suddenly rediscovered the childish joy of painting. I reconnected to something very deep and very free.” More than ten years later, in 2000, Guy Oberson decided to devote himself exclusively to painting, having always painted as a self-taught artist. 

In 2011 he was awarded a Friborg State grant and spent six months on an artist’s residency in Berlin. Successive trips all over the world deeply inspire his reflections and consequently his themes and the subjects of his paintings. His non-traditional background and diverse experiences fuelled his work and helped to build its balance and power. 

The art of Guy Oberson, a duality of techniques and subjects 

The artist likes to experiment with multiple techniques and mediums including oils, installations, ceramics, watercolour, red chalk and engraving. However, the technique that has characterised his work most from the start is the black chalk (pierre noire), a drawing tool comparable to charcoal whose blacks are richer and deeper and even more matte. The black chalk is also irreversible, thus constantly testing the artist’s technical mastery.  

Guy Oberson does not draw outlines but assembles his work by an accumulation of lines; with this process, subjects emerge when viewed from a distance and then disappear before the observer’s very eyes once they approach. The artist blurs his black chalk in a myriad of vertical streaks which disrupt the viewer’s perception of the subject and makes interpreting the work less immediate. 

His black chalk drawings are figurative, representing landscapes or portraits. The artist has drawn his inspiration from real life here and the artistic process begins with studying a model or often a photograph. These figurative works are confronted with abstract or semi-abstract oil paintings, which is another key production in Guy Oberson’s work. For such paintings, the artist draws from his imagination or memory, and therefore has total freedom in his strokes. The two techniques and the two types of subject complement each other, inviting confrontation. 

Themes: human identity and the search for “real life”

Whether abstract or figurative, Guy Oberson’s works have great expressive force and a timeless character that is both melancholic and subtle, both tormented and dramatized. This contemporary painter explores themes that relate to society, for example the status of migrants, as well as themes about human identity, such as the relationship of humanity with the animal and natural world or our mythologies. 

The latest theme addressed by Guy Oberson is surely his most personal: his own perception of reality, which is reflected in the representation of the artist’s interior space in his works. What he is looking for is “real life”, “the smell of life”, as he says, “life, death, sex, and the dark side”. 

Art enables me to poetically restore my relationship with intimacy, otherness and the sacred. […] Being an artist is above all a daily attempt to contribute to the freedom of the gaze, autonomy of thought, and the retransmission of energy and beauty.” Guy Oberson, interview with Philippe Piguet (Art absolument no. 78, July-August 2017). 

Recognition of institutions and performance art

Guy Oberson lives and works across Lentigny (Switzerland), Paris (France) and Berlin (Germany). For around 15 years the artist has exhibited his works in European museums, contemporary art spaces, foundations, fairs and galleries, mainly in Switzerland and France. In 2014 he was awarded the Bédikian Foundation Award (Paris) and in 2016 he received the State of Friborg Cultural Award (Switzerland). 

His works belong to public collections, including the collection at the Friborg Museum of Art and History and at the La Chaux-de-Fonds Museum of Fine Arts, as well as private collections, such as the Luciano Benetton Collection in Venice. Guy Oberson is also referenced in numerous catalogues and monographs, and he has published several art books with the writer Nancy Huston. 

His artistic work extends to performance art, which he has performed in solo productions or in collaboration with musicians and directors. In 2017, he performed with pianist composer Édouard Ferlet and dancer and choreographer Eric Fessenmeyer in the show “Piano Sketching”, presented at the Théâtre de Belleville and at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris).

CV

Exhibitions

  • 2022 – “Pollen”, video installation at the museum Jenisch Vevey, Vevey, Suitzerland
  • 2021 – « XXL, le dessin en grand » collective exhibition, Jenisch museum, Vevey, Switzerland
  • 2021 – « Nous sommes des étoiles filantes », personal exhibition, Gallery Cappaza, Nançay, France
  • 2021 – « Pollen », solo show, C Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2019 – « La nef des fous », duo show, Guy Oberson and Benoît Huot, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2019 – « Passion. Bilder von der Jagd », group show, Des Grisons Museum of Fine Arts, Coire, Switzerland
  • 2019 – « L’Arbre, c’est le temps rendu visible », group show, Capazza Gallery, Nançay, France
  • 2019 – « Orbis Terrae », group show, Domus Poetica, Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • 2018 – « Naked clothes », solo show, Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle, Switzerland
  • 2018 – « Densité d’une absence », solo show, Fondation Edouard Vallet, Vercorin, Switzerland
  • 2018 – « Somium », group show, Domus Poetica, Bellinzone, Switzerland
  • 2018 – « Âme qui vive », solo show, Catherine Niederhauser Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2018 – « Art Paris », Art Fair with Gallery C, Grand Palais, Paris, France
  • 2017 – « Je ne peux fermer les yeux », solo show, De l’Etrave Gallery, Contemporary Art Space, Thonon-les-Bains, France
  • 2017 – « Grand Trouble », group show, La Halle Saint Pierre, Paris France
  • 2017 – «73rd Contemporary Art Biennale », group show, Museum of Fine Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
  • 2017 – « Chambre avec vue d’artistes », group show, Wallpaper Museum, Mézières, Switzerland
  • 2017 – « Solus », group show, Domus Poetica, Cultural Space, Bellinzone, Switzerland
  • 2017 – « Drawing Now », Contemporary Drawing Fair, Le Carreaux du Temple, Paris, France
  • 2017 – « Chutes et Floraison », solo show, Galerie Contrecontre, St-Maurice, Switzerland
  • 2016 – « Zones Poreuses, carte blanche à Guy Oberson », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2016 – « Credo », group show, Vincent Sator Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2016 – « Eaux lointaines », solo show, Galartis / Rhône Gallery, Sion, Switzerland
  • 2016 – « Drawing Now », Contemporary Drawing Fair with Gallery C, Paris, France
  • 2016 – « 72nd Contemporary Art Biennale», group show, Museum of Fine Arts, La Chaud-de-Fonds, Switzerland
  • 2016 – « Dons majeurs du Fonds Maximilien de Meuron 1916-2016 », group show, Art and History Museum, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2016 – « Maximilien de Meuron, du rêve à l’utopie », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2015 – « Semblance », solo show, Méjan Chapel, Arles, France
  • 2015 – « Erreur de paradis », solo show, Art and History Museum, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2015 – « Jäger & Sammler », group show, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany
  • 2015 – « Map Of The New Art, Luciano Benetton Collection », group show, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy
  • 2014 – « Jäger & Sammler », group show, Morsbroich Museum, Leverkusen, Germany
  • 2014 – « Terrestres », solo show, Eric Muchot Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2014 – « Drawing Now », Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris, France
  • 2014 – « La Vengeance de Mathilde », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2014 – « Piano Sketching », Performance with E. Ferlet et E. Fessenmeyer, Belleville Theatre and Chatelet Theatre, Paris, France
  • 2013 – « Terrestres », solo show, Charmey Museum, Switzerland
  • 2013 – « Black-out », group show, Jordan/Seydoux Gallery, Berlin, Germany
  • 2013 – « Drawing Now », Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris, France
  • 2013 – « Portraits », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2012 – « Perf O », Performance and solo show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2012 – « Endless Walls, Infinty Sky », solo show, Gallery of (A), Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2012 – « Verso », group show, Vitromuseum, Romont, Switzerland
  • 2012 – « Le paysage dans tous ces états », group show, Charmey Museum, Charmey, Switzerland
  • 2012 – « La terre nous est étroite », performance, Edmund Alleyn Studio, Montréal, Canada
  • 2012 – « Would The Christ Have Been Gay », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2012 – « XXL-XXS », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2011 – « Berlin’s Works », solo show, Uferhalle, Berlin, Germany
  • 2011 – « Enigmatics Fantasies », group show, Altro Mondo Gallery, Manila, Philippines
  • 2011 – « Born », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2011 – « Cri », group show, Gallery C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2011 – « Shanghai Contemporary 2011 », with Altro Mondo Gallery, International Art Fair, Shanghai, China
  • 2011 – « 10 ans, Flashback », group show, Polad-Hardouin Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2010 – « Ciels de cendre », solo show, Fallet gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 2010 – « Horizons incertains », solo show, Amis des Arts Galley, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2010 – « élévation(s) », solo show, scenography by Christian Egger, Grand-Cachot-de-Vent Foundation, La Chaux-du-Milieux, Switzerland
  • 2010 – « Notre besoin de consolation est impossible à rassasier », Theatre staged by C. Egger, painting-performance, Nouveau Monde, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2010 – « Guy Oberson », Artesol gallery, solo show, Soleure, Switzerland
  • 2009 – « Morsures de lumière », Polad-Hardouin Gallery, solo show, Paris, France
  • 2009 – « Artistes fribourgeois contemporains », group show, Art and History Museum, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2009 – « Murmures », group show, l’Hôtel de Ville Gallery, Yverdon, Switzerland
  • 2008 – « Drawing Now », Contemporary Drawing Fair, with Gallery Polad-Hardouin, Paris, France
  • 2008 – « Traits d’union », group show, Ô quai des arts Gallery, Vevey, Switzerland
  • 2008 – « Abella, Balkert, Oberson », group show, Jean-Jacques Hofstetter Gallery, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2007 – « Intranquille amour », group show, Polad-Hardouin Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2007 – « Drawing Now », Contemporary Drawing Fair, with Gallery Polad-Hardouin, Paris, France
  • 2007 – « Au-delà du corps », Contemporary Art Biennale, Aix-sur-Vienne, France
  • 2007 – « À fleur de peau », solo show, Fallet Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 2007 – « La part d’ombre », group show, Idées d’artistes Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2007 – « Oberson – Oulevay », group show, Amis des Arts Gallery, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 2006 – « L’œuvre au noir », solo show, Idées d’artistes Gallery, Paris, France
  • 2006 – « De craie et de chaux vive », solo show, Selz Contemporary Art Gallery, Perrefitte, Switzerland
  • 2006 – « Traces », group show, Fallet Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 2005 – « Connecté », painting-performance, Theater staged by C. Egger, Nouveau Monde, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2005 – « Jardin d’artiste », local intervention, Science and city festival, Botanical garden, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2005 – « Oberson, Vasquez », group show, Ferme du désert Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2004 – « Fragments d’artistes, by L. Arickx in Vélickovic », group show, Idées d’artistes gallery, Paris, France
  • 2004 – « Guy Oberson », solo show, Nelly L’Eplattenier Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2004 – « Guy Oberson », solo show, Jean-Jacques Hofstetter Gallery, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2002 – « Légère intrusion », solo show, Du côté de chez Swan Library-Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 2002 – « Guy Oberson », solo show, Grande Fontaine Gallery, Sion, Switzerland
  • 2001 – « Guy Oberson », solo show, Jean-Jacques Hofstetter Gallery, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2001 – « Guy Oberson », solo show, Castle Gallery, Avenches, Switzerland
  • 2000 – « Guy Oberson » solo show, La Schürra Gallery, Pierrafortscha, Switzerland
  • 1999 – « Transnational Plastic Arts Contest 1999 », Municipality of Divonne-les-Bains, France
  • 1998 – « Noir de fumée et blanc plâtre », solo show, la Tour Gallery, La Tour-de-Trême, Switzerland
  • 1997 – « Guy Oberson », solo show, Côté Cour Gallery, Rolle, Switzerland
  • 1996 – « Brigitte Babel – Guy Oberson », Tzanzero Gallery, group show, Payerne, Switzerland
  • 1991 – « Salon d’hiver », group show, Gallery oh the Ratière, Romont, Switzerland
  • 1988 – « Forum of the young romande painting », group show, Gallery of the Ratière, Romont, Switzerland

Awards & Residencies

  • 2016 – Cultural Prize of the State of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2014 – Prize of Fondation Bédikian, Paris, France
  • 2011 – Artist Residency. Grant of the State of Fribourg, Berlin, Germany
To top
Send this to a friend
Cart
Loading...

Subtotal

without shipping costs *

Loading...

* Shipping costs will be calculated based on the delivery address you provide in the next step
Checkout
Contact us

    Please complete the form below and choose how you would like to be contacted (email or telephone).
    You can also call us on +33(0)1 40 28 92 28.


    * Necessary fields