Vidya Gastaldon
Vidya Gastaldon is a Swiss-French artist born in 1974 in Besançon, France. She studied at École supérieure d’art de Grenoble, France. She lives and works in Brénod, France.
Gastaldon’s figurative paintings depict forms seemingly inhabiting wondrous worlds in which nature would have a magical force. Her cosmic representations give the appearance of a larger, complex ecosystem. Beyond paintbrushes and pencils, her artistic practice encompasses yoga, gardening, as well as meditation and readings of sacred texts and comics. This diversity contributes to creating a protean world, harmoniously ‘split’ between light and darkness, origins and apocalypse, micro- and macrocosms. Gastaldon nevertheless adheres to non-binary modes of representation. Spirits, allegories, and divinities cohabit in dazzling, dazed landscapes that touch on the sacred and the secular, art history, and the vernacular. Beyond references and appropriations, Gastaldon’s art essentially stems from visions; the artist describes herself as their mere vector or instrument. This approach is uncommon in the recent history of art.
Selected institutional solo shows include those at Musée de l’Abbaye Sainte-Croix (Les Sables d’Olonne, France), MAMCO (Geneva), Centre d’art contemporain Les Capucins (Embrun, France), Swiss Institute New York (USA) and Kunstmuseum Thun (Switzerland). Her work was exhibited in numerous group exhibitions such as those at the Kuntmuseum Bern (Switzerland), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France), Salon Suisse (Venice Biennale, Italy) and FriArt (Fribourg, Switzerland), Wilhelm-Hack-Museum (Ludwigshafen, Germany), Triennale d’Art Contemporain du Valais (Martigny, Switzerland), and Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou (Paris).
Gastaldon’s works are featured in several public art collections, including Centre National des Arts Plastiques (France), Credit Suisse, Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain (Geneva), Kadist Art Foundation (Paris), Kunstmuseum Bern (Switzerland), MAMCO (Geneva), MNAM – Centre Pompidou (Paris), Walsall Museum (UK) and the Pinault Collection (Paris).
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