Never lazy, never awake. Conflicting ideas, paradoxes, opposing traditions and contemporary zeitgeist. Mixing subconscious and border-line reality in a maelstrom of sights and things, Gilles Kutten has a plan and a vision of how his work could come to life, but he looses track in the process by daydreaming and witnessing everyday life. His detailed drawings exist in opposition to his attention deficit and inner conflicts.

Ultimately his drawings talk about life itself, an all encompassing sweep that latches on unspecific or seemingly imminently important manifestations and existential observations. Like a quod libet of dreams and fantasies, fears and most prominently, death itself. Mixing pop-culture and mysticism, his drawings talk about beauty and decay. It’s a never-ending tug-of-war of opposites and an allegory about the absurdity and mystery of existence itself.

Possessing a Master in Plastic Arts, working full-time as an art teacher, a father of two sons and a husband to his wife, Gilles Kutten sees his art as an instinctive push to self-fulfilment. Time-consuming in it’s essence as it is timeless in it’s presence. The egocentricity of the act of art creation matches his persona, self-doubt and sociopathic traits that dance in unison to a soft syncopated beat that represent a mix of optimism and nihilism.

If you ask Gilles Kutten about what he deems to be the most important part of his process, he will talk about his need to include space, plasticity and corporality in his drawings. Visually but also conceptually, as space can be seen as a void waiting to be filled with meaning or simply just presence. Geometry and bodies invested in creating loci.

Additionally, his drawings talk about influences and inspiration he finds in the gaming culture, having spent countless hours in virtual realities and in the ninth art: from Spiderman to graphic novels, from “bandes dessinées” through Taniguchi to manga and asian culture. He sees Max Ernst as the epicentre of his creative process, naming Albrecht Dürer, Neo Rauch, Katsuya Terada and Olivier DZO as his main influences. Curious about every aspect of life, he spends hours playing board games, reading books, riding roller coasters, collecting things, making electronic music and watching people and the world go round.

Career:

2002-2006: Université Marc Bloch Strasburg, Master in Plastic Arts

Since 2011: Professeur en éducation artisitque

Exhibitions:

2017: Schauwenbuerg, Bertrange

2016: “The Moan”, Cube, Rotondes, Luxembourg

2015: M-Art-Um Expo, Machtum

2014-2019: Troc’N’Brol, Rotondes