Madeleine Paternot

Swiss-American Madeleine Paternot is, invariably, an artist dedicated to painting, with that very commitment now being applied to installation and sculptural work. Stretching across the range of her work, Paternot retains a succinct focus on the interaction between paint and a nominal surface.

Her formal background in Cultural Anthropology affords her intellectual powers with which she may excavate traces of the creative arts from the formal timeline of human history, but her capabilities with paint drives her production, independently.

Her personal collection of vintage chairs alongside a fascination with the (literally and historically) multifaceted properties of crystal chandeliers serve as a platform for her most recent work. Paternot's interest in chairs relates to a pivotal item within the modern boudoir: an 18th century room designated to entertain gentleman callers, and an intimate space where the modern concept of the art salon was first conceived.

Paternot draws imagery from items accrued over years of nomadic wanderings: from Japanese anime to Chine-collé printmaking, wheat pasting, and calligraphy to create portraits emphasizing the spirituality and intimacy experienced within her home.

The current set of installations, executed in the studio, are fully-realized environments: wallpaper is composed of repeated imagery of Paternot’s painted chandeliers (as if they were photographic negatives). Her chairs and a dossier filled with pictures of chandeliers hang over the wallpaper, acting as double-agents of curiosity and reference.

Paternot references the work of Rudolf Stingel, Karen Kilimnik, Andy Warhol, and Elizabeth Peyton, based primarily in their critical executions of painting. Paternot’s work displays the appearance of the paint disappearing into portraiture, to noticeable strokes and ridges of the paintbrush making themselves visible, and also includes the composition of miniature pastoral scenes on plain paper which, eventually, are applied to a hard surface to mimic finely-crafted linoleum tiles.

Madeleine Paternot was born in Stanford, California in 1972. She received her BA from Vassar College in Cultural Anthropology. Her work appears in both public and private collections based in London, Paris, Milan, New York, Geneva, and Dubai. She serves on the board of The Heinemann Foundation and is a Co-Founder/Teaching Artist for the Verbier 3-D Residency & Sculpture Park in Verbier, Switzerland. She lives and works in New York City.

EDUCATION

1998: Kensington & Chelsea College, London, England, Higher National Certificate in Fine Arts (HNC)
1996: Art Center School of Design, Vevey, Switzerland, Studied for B.A. in Product Design
1995: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology with a Minor in French Literature

RESIDENCY

2009: School of Visual Arts, New York, New York, Summer Residency in Painting

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2008 Oriental Desire, Mews42 Gallery, London, England
2007 Oriental Journey, Arte Reale Gallery, Milan, Italy
2006 Oriental Dream, Espace L'Hommond, Paris, France
2005 Atelier Le Pic, Lausanne, Switzerland
2003 Asian Inspirations, Kings Park Hotel, Verbier, Switzerland
2001 Swiss Art in the UK, Swiss Embassy, London, England
2001 Sri Lanka Journey, Blake House, London, England
1998 Atelier Le Pic, Lausanne, Switzerland
1998 Fine Art & The Interior, Space Gallery, London, England
1998 Influence of the Orient, M Gallery, London, England

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010 Desire Over Taboo, Poligono Gallery, Marabella, Spain
2009 Opening Gallery Show, Gallery Benoit, Boston, Massachusetts
2007 Art Gare 2007, Lausanne & Geneva, Switzerland
2004 ASL Alumni Show, One Egg Gallery, New York, New York
2004 Bagn'Art, Muse de Bagnes, Le Chable, Switzerland
2000 The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) Charity, London, England
2000 La Salon for Art Collectors, Vanessa Suchar, London, England
1998 Prism Of The Mind, Kensington & Chelsea College, London, England

SELECTED PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Marcus Bratter, Kings Park Hotel, Verbier, Switzerland
Laurence Lafforgue, Art We Love, New York, New York
Nenad Marovac, DN Capital Investment, London, England
Orion Corporation, Killarney Co. Kerry, Ireland
Rose Partnership LLP, London, England
Wolfgang Amadeus Bruelhart, Ambassador of Switzerland to UAE in Abu Dhabi
Christina Gilardoni Collection, Milan, Italy

BOARDS

Heineman Foundation, Board of Directors, New York, New York
3-D Foundation, President and Co-Founder, New York, New York and Verbier, Switzerland