Adrian Geller

Adrian Geller tells us the story of an escape from the modern world and a return to nature through figures of men standing as an extension of himself.
Coming straight from the city, these “Men in suits” seem to seek in nature a refuge, a haven of peace. They curl up in the bushes. They are not afraid of wolves. They somehow integrate into this unpredictable environment that is challenging them. Because the artist instills force in this nature and its indomitable inhabitants. Through his characters, we follow a whole epic and tenderly observe how his hero characters manage to adapt and to be inventive facing this apparent hostility. Night then offers a truce and wipes the hardships away. It invites us to calm down and awakens our imagination.
May his artworks embody personal questionings such as his relationship to nature and environment, they do not impose any explicit and even less moralising narrative.

Conversely, Adrian Geller poetically takes from the genre of the tale its marvellous dimension through his fantastic characters, his representation of night and his optimism about reality. His respectful characters pander to nature and try to reconquer it. It is not uncommon to observe in Adrian Geller’s pictorial work a giantlike man tenderly holding a slender plant in his hands, or to observe how small man is facing nature that extends as far as the eye can see.

From his first residency at the villa Noailles in 2021, the artists preserves powerful memories: his strolls in the garden, his walks on the hill and the Saint-Bernard and Saint-Claire parks… The artist is back in this place loaded with feelings which he continues as he materialises them with this fresco for the 36th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories in Hyères. Being part of the tradition of private commission for frescoes, the artist offers a modern vision of it, where lush nature welcomes his famous avatars.

A Swiss multidisciplinary artist, Adrian Geller was born in 1997. He is currently based in Paris. After training in illustration at the school L’Atelier in Angoulême, he entered the Paris School of Fine Arts and joined Tim Eitel’s workshop, then Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano’s ones. The artist mainly explores painting, drawing, textile, sculpture, video, and installation. This young talent is currently holding his very first solo show at the gallery Super Dakota in Brussels. His works were previously displayed in collective exhibitions such as Chez Valentin in Paris.

Elsa Meunier