Oliver Beer solo show at Hangar 107, Rouen, France Oliver Beer's 'Resonance Paintings - Nymphéas' exhibited on the occasion of the Normandie Impressionniste festival

Oliver Beer offers us a visual experience at the crossroads of the senses. Translating musical harmony into an impressive visual language on canvas, the artist's Resonance Paintings offer us a highly singular interpretation of Monet's famous Nymphéas.

After recording the sounds of the waterlily pond at Giverny, Oliver Beer placed a loudspeaker under a horizontally oriented canvas upon which dry powdered pigment had been scattered. The sounds of the pond cause the canvas to vibrate, moving and shaping the pigment into visual representations of sound waves. The artist not only uses the sounds of the Giverny pond but also musical harmonies to create the paintings. These appear on the surface as undulating geometric patterns, which are then fixed using a unique technique developed by Beer.

The Centre d'Art Contemporain at Hangar 107, with its monumental walls, provides an immersive playground for these canvases, opening up the possibility of an aquatic dialogue with the Seine flowing along the wide windows.

Artist talk with Oliver Beer on Thursday 23 May 2024, 3pm

Discussion between Philippe Platel, director of the Normandie Impressionniste festival, and Oliver Beer, artist, as part of the ‘Resonance Paintings - Nymphéas’ exhibition.