Discover the contemporary work of Joël WATERKEYN

Two courses: Plastic arts: portraits made in oil at the end of the 70s. Bronze and aluminum sculpture and very large format acrylic painting with Emmanuel Arredondo (1946-2006) Professor of Art and Sculptor-Foundryman. 1995 to 2005: pure abstraction in sculpture and painting. Modeling and sculpture at the Decorative Arts Palais du Louvre 2015/2016 with Valérie DELARUE. Back to painting in 2017. Exhibits in Salons and Galleries since 2020. Second career: Oto-Neurologist specializing in Sensory 1991-2019 and Researcher in gaze strategy.
Personal research since the early 90s on the "visual strategy" in an Art and Science approach: what are we looking at? What are the specific points or areas of significance that influence our gaze? An academic principle, perhaps the most widespread, is that a painting must necessarily offer a maximum center of interest on which the other elements of the work depend. In my current artistic approach, undoubtedly inspired in large part by US Abstract Expressionism and Lyrical Abstraction, there is no main center of interest voluntarily defined (even if each viewer of the work can find one), but a multitude of zones and points of attraction of the gaze which favor complex paths of visual exploration of the work presented. An artistic approach which thus tends towards an exploration of the perception of forms in competition of pregnancies with pregnancies very close to each other, hence the generation of multiple visual paths increasing the salience of the work. I thus offer the Spectator a visual journey, sometimes complex, even labyrinthine (!), and not an immediate synthetic global approach. The aim is thus to promote the fluidity of the perception of the work and its memorization by the spectator, and which sometimes allows him to enter a modified state of consciousness, while remaining present, opening the door to a meditation, sometimes close to a hypnotic trance. Back to sculpture since March 2023 with gallery exhibitions and participation in official Salons and private exhibitions. Abstract bronze. Technique still used: that of the so-called "subtractive" or "negative" molding developed by Emmanuel ARREDONDO as well as in Germany by Benno WERTH and his partner Gisela Engeln-Mullges, Painters and Sculptors.

Workshop in JUZIERS Yvelines 78820 (near the former house-studio of Berthe MORISOT in MEZY sur SEINE).

Mail : [hidden for your safety]

Website : https://waterkeyn.jimdosite.com/galerie-1

 Network : https://www.instagram.com/joelwaterkeyn/

SCULPTURE PRIZE obtained on September 21 at the Salon des Beaux-Arts of the ANAF (National Association of French Artists) for "SYMBIOSE 3" abstract bronze - unique piece - EXHIBITION  2024: - ART CAPITAL 2024 from February 13 (opening by invitation) to 18; Grand Palais Éphémère Paris 7th: I am exhibiting a patinated and polished bronze style: abstract expressionism. Unique piece. Subtractive casting technique (indirect stone cutting). Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2-Nbx3saRy/ Salon d'Automne de Paris Grande Halle de la Villette (M° Porte de Pantin); presentation in the "Variations" Group of a large abstract acrylic format: "Composition bleu ultramarine". Present from January 17 to 21. Opening by invitation on Wednesday, January 17 17/22 H; opening ceremony 19H; open to the public T / F 11/19 H, Saturday 11/21H, Sunday 11/18H. PERMANENTLY: at the Galerie Matignon Saint Honoré 34 avenue Matignon Paris 08: paintings and bronzes. EXHIBITIONS 2023: - Salon des Beaux-Arts de Boulogne-Billancourt Espace Landowski 28 Av. André Morizet. Bronze presented: Entropy. 6 / 26 November. - Vivienne Art Galerie 30 galerie Vivienne Paris 02 from 6 to 11 November: Franco-Asian exhibition; Openings on the 8th and 9th; closing on Sunday 11 November. - MODERN ARTFAIR Champs Élysées Paris with the Galerie Matignon Saint-Honoré from October 18 to 22. - 75th Salon of the National Association of French Artists (ANAF) Saint Mandé City Hall from September 21 to October 1; every J from 2 to 6 p.m. Free admission. Opening in the presence of the Mayor. Sculptures and paintings. SCULPTURE PRIZE obtained. - Art3F Paris from September 22 to 24 Porte de Versailles. - Galerie Étienne de Causans 25 rue de Seine Paris 06 Exhibition of sculptures - bronze - cast aluminum - unique pieces; and paintings, with France Asia Culture, from July 3 to 12. And exhibition of 4 sculptures - bronze - cast aluminum - unique pieces with the FRIENDS OF THE PARIS FALL SHOW from June 12 to 21 - ART3F Nantes Mars; presentation of bronzes. - Vivienne Art Gallery from March 13 to 22; 12 large-format paintings presented and 4 abstract bronze sculptures. - Salon des Beaux-Arts de Garches from March 17 to April 2, 2023 (Salle des Fêtes de la Mairie). - Salon des INDÉPENDANTS at the Grand Palais Æphemère ART CAPITAL 2023: from February 14 to 19: works presented: 2 formats of 195 by 130 cm: Osmose 1 and Osmose 3 and a format 116 by 81: Composition Indigo. Acrylic on linen frame. link: https://www.artistes-independants.fr/la-galerie-des-artistes-independants-sdai - Galerie Thuillier The Jury Prize from February 3 to 16 13 rue de Thorigny PARIS 03 (near Picasso Museum); and The Press Prize from February 17 to March 2. - ART3F PARIS January 27 to 29, 2023   Galerie du Soleil Pavilion 5.2 Porte de Versailles. 2022: - Vivienne Art Galerie International collective exhibition from December 5 to 11. with France Asia Culture. - 75th Salon of the National Association of French Artists (ANAF) Saint Mandé City Hall from September 29 to October 9 -  Galerie Francis Barlier 36 rue de Penthièvre 75008 Paris from September 22 to 30. Theme: " From symbolism to abstraction " - 43rd International Art Fair of Puy-en-Velay at the Pierre Cardinal Center from August 10 to 24 - Francis Barlier Gallery from May 13 to 21. Theme: "The secret world of artists" - FRENCH ARTISTS Fair at ART CAPITAL 2022 at the Grand Palais Éphémére (opposite the Eiffel Tower); from February 16 to 20. "Weightlessness"; published in ARTENSION January 2022 - INDEPENDENT ART CAPITAL 2022 Fair: work presented: "Between two Worlds". - Thuillier Gallery Press Prize 2022 from February 18 to March 3 - Galerie Thuillier Jury Prize 2022 from February 4 to 17, 2021: - Galerie Thuillier from September 17 to 30 - 42nd International Art Fair of Puy-en-Velay at the Pierre Cardinal Center in August: 2 works: Between two Worlds 3 and 6. Prize obtained: Abstraction Prize 2021 - Osmose 3 in Univers des Arts N° 203 (2021 version) - Between two Worlds 5 in Artension N° 168 - Thuillier Gallery Press Prize 2021 from April 2 to 15 - Thuillier Gallery Jury Prize 2021 from March 19 to April 01 Works presented in the magazine Mosaïques de Printemps. 2020: - Salon d’ Automne de Paris on the Champs Élysées scheduled from October 14 to 18: online gallery: https://www.salon-automne.com/catalogue-2020 Work presented: "Labyrinthe". Group "Convergences". - Thuillier Gallery : 2020 Press Prize from February 14 to 27 and 2020 Jury Prize from January 31 to February 13 - 1990s: Annual Salon of Painters-Physicians rue de l'Ecole de Médecine in Paris May 1997: 7 works exhibited in all formats from F3 to F120, including titles related to my research on visual strategy: "Forest of Signs", "Strategy of the Gaze No. 1", "The Eye". - Exhibition during the year 1997 of an abstract bronze sculpture with a green patina (unique piece) at the Galerie Leymarie 4 rue de Miromesnil in Paris 8 (near the Elysée). ___________________________________________________________________

- Member of the National Union of Sculptors and Visual Artists (SNSP) - Member of the Salon du Puy-en-Velay and the Salon des Beaux-Arts de Boulogne-Billancourt (SBABB) - Member of the National Association of French Artists (ANAF) - Member of the Association of Friends of the Salon d'Automne de Paris - Former Member of the Académie France Monde Culture - Listed AKOUN 2023-2024: "LA COTE DES PEINTRES" available FNAC AMAZON and by subscription - Sculpture Prize at the ANAF Salon September 2023 - Abstraction Prize 2021 at the 42nd International Artistic Salon of Puy-en-Velay August 2021    

Artistic approach:
Abstract Expressionism with a mix, a symbiosis of structured forms, sometimes geometric, and organic, biomorphic forms. Awareness of the complexity of the World. Notion of "controlled chaos".  Absence of conscious intention to reproduce a physical reality. A place left to chance in painting and sculpture in the development of forms and patterns by favoring those that favor the most fluid visual circuits without too strong points of fixation of the gaze.  Personal research since the early 90s on the "visual strategy" in an Art and Science approach: what are we looking at? What are the precise points or areas of significance that influence our gaze? In my current artistic approach, there is no deliberately defined center of interest (even if each Viewer of the work can find one), but a multitude of areas and points of attraction of the gaze. I thus offer the Viewer a visual journey that is often complex, sometimes labyrinthine and not an immediate global approach to the work, painting or sculpture. This encourages the Viewer to: explore the work that delivers its visual message progressively; I also invite the Spectator to touch my sculptures, the tactile experience combining with the visual discovery. Some Spectators feel a state of meditation and well-being; a couple of art lovers met at a Salon defined the sculpture presented as "a synthesis between materiality and spirituality"! Technique in sculpture: Back to sculpture since March 2023 with exhibitions in galleries and at official Salons. Bronze only. Creation from A to Z from the mold to casting and final polishing, with or without patina, using the technique already used from 1996 to 2004: that of so-called "subtractive" or "negative" casting (direct hollow stone cutting) developed by Emmanuel ARREDONDO (1946-2006) in France, as well as in Germany by Benno WERTH (deceased in 2015) and now by his former partner Gisela ENGELN-MÜLLGES. Technique that allows non-ferrous metal, bronze, aluminum, silver or other, to express more all its properties and allowing shapes in a single casting not achievable by the two other multi-millennial techniques, "sand" or "lost wax".