Stéphane Bordarier in his studio

From early on, Bordarier conceived of painting as a definitive stance within the history of the medium—a way of intervening in the field to shift its boundaries. His work has been shaped by the radical movements of the 20th century, seeking its own path based on reduction and the essential.

He joined Galerie Jean Fournier in the late 1980s, where he formed friendships with Joan Mitchell and Shirley Jaffe, and worked alongside figures such as Simon Hantaï, James Bishop...

Bordarier’s language developed around the gradual elaboration of a “quality of surface” that rejects thickness and material effects. This singular syntax is based on a method close to fresco, the artist working the color into a glue-bound ground during the setting process itself, so that the color appears less applied onto the canvas than as an integral part of its surface.

This rigor excludes neither accident, adventure, nor a "mixing of styles." The unity of form and color becomes a site for a multiplicity of treatments—underlayers rising to the surface, variations, and unexpected juxtapositions—opening the painting to a new intensity that is physical, vibrant, and profoundly contemporary.

A solo exhibition of the artist’s work will be held at the gallery in 2027.