biographie (english)

Publié le 20 juin 2006 par Francesca Brenda

Francesca Brenda

Born to a family of artists, Francesca Brenda has been passionate aboute painting since childhood, a passion inspired by her father, a nature of Curacao. Her mother was French and she was raised by her Colombian grand-mother. Living in Colombia , she was exposed to the violent extremes of that society from adolescence. She participated in political movements proposing the abolution of these extreme class distinctions. Forced eventually to leave the country, she sought refuge in Costa-Rica, having traveled extensively throughout Central America, Europe, Lebanon, Morroco, Egypt and Hong Kong. She fills her canvases with shimmering, contrasting colors. A clash of cultures and people, latent violent conflicts, intense joy and pain. A glance, emphasized by the intensity of a stroke or the shock of a color. Simultaneously express, hope, hate, love, joy, machismo, aggrssion. Sometimes the subjects appeare to come and go from the canvas in the blink of an eyes. Today, living in Paris, Francesca Brenda offers us a painting of instant sensation. The intense gazes, revealed in a vivid feature, a sharp edge. These images challenge us, they watch us. They are mishievous, laughing, jealous, enamoured, ambiguous. Destructured through the expanse of this gesture that we arrive at abstraction. Francesca sustains a sensual rapport with the luminous white space of a canvas. She spends long hours preparing each piece in the most time-honored tradition of streching and sizing with various layers

of rabbit skin glue. The contemplation of this empty surface becomes the challenge which combines strenght and emotion in the adventure of creation. At once the gesture is violent or gentle, round or angular. The dance seduces. A long moment studying the outlines, the movement, the fluidity. Has the alchemy been realized ? Often, the first brush stroke is the most important. Sitting before the canvas, moving around it she analyzes the movement and its effect on the emotional content. If there is the least hint of discord, if the subject does not ?speak? forcefully, the canvas is destroyed. These painting are not done to decorate but to inhabit a space, and for that reason they cannot tire those who share that space with them. They are entirely unique and provocative.