Artist Biography
Bernard Quesniaux (b. 1963, La Flèche, France, based in Cherbourg, France) creates drawings, paintings, prints and assemblages that explore ideas of representation and perception through surrealist and often humorous approaches. With vivid colours and bold strokes, his works are marked by the rhythmic use of lines—both figurative and metaphorical, fluid and interrupted—to suggest a dynamic reality that is constantly unfolding before our eyes.
While suggesting figurative elements such as the human body in two-dimensional works, like his Sans titre series begun in 1989, Quesniaux’s line also invokes a boundary, a separation or a journey, guiding the viewer’s eye across the pictorial space. Never fully enclosed, his lyrical linear forms sway between the foreground and background, seen and unseen—exuding a sense of lightness, naivety and movement influenced by the artist’s passion for jazz music. In a later diptych titled Vu dans la rue (2019), Quesniaux portrays a line of colourful, eccentric characters against a white background. They appear in varying sizes and are rendered in a jarring mix of cartoon-like strokes and photographic realism—”like a big Post-It in the painting”—that confronts, confuses and surprises all at once.
Quesniaux completed his art education at the École des Arts Décoratifs, Strasbourg in 1977. His work is held in numerous collections including Fonds régional d'art contemporain Alsace; Montbéliard Museum; Toulon Art Museum; Fonds régional d'art contemporain Ile-de-France; and Fonds régional d'art contemporain Limousin.
Notable exhibitions include Drawing Now (2020), Carreau du Temple, Paris; On this world in ruins (2015), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen; Lights (2014), Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris; Christian Lacroix in Dialogue! (2005), Musée des Beaux-arts et de la Dentelle d'Alençon; Bernard Quesniaux (1988), Toulon Art Museum; and On the Origin of Painting (1987), Strasbourg Museum of Modern Art. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including La Memoria e il Futuro (2001–2004), 20th Triennale di Milano.
Quesniaux had his residency at the STPI Workshop in 2004.