From Bordeaux to the Jungle: An Initiatory Path

Born in Bordeaux in 1990, Bruno Gadenne belongs to a generation of artists who have revived figurative painting by infusing it with a symbolic, introspective depth. A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he developed early on a visual language in which nature becomes the stage for an existential dialogue.
For Gadenne, to travel is to paint. His journeys – from South America to Iceland, India to the Amazon – fuel a body of work where the landscape, far from being documentary, becomes a sensorial experience, reconstructed from memory and emotion.

“I’m not trying to reproduce a place, but to translate a sensation.”

The Forest as an Inner Mirror

The forest stands at the heart of his work: a space of mystery, silence, and transformation. For Gadenne, it is not a setting but a living entity. His paintings explore the duality of nature—both sanctuary and threat, light and darkness.
With cinematic precision and subtle shifts in tone, he captures that uncanny tension between wonder and unease, where the viewer feels both drawn in and unsettled.
Each painting becomes an inner landscape, reflecting our own psychological terrain.

Travel as Pictorial Matrix

Each project begins with travel—and above all, walking. With his camera, the artist gathers fragments of reality: fleeting lights, shadows, movements. These images, reworked and recomposed in the studio, form the foundation of his compositions.
Through a digital collage process, he rearranges perspectives, merges memories, and creates mental maps rather than real vistas. This interplay between photography, technology, and paint reflects a deeply contemporary approach to the landscape.

From Digital Sketches to the Sublime

Back in the studio, Gadenne works slowly, layering translucent glazes until light seems to emanate from within. His technique evokes Turner’s atmospheres and Friedrich’s spiritual intensity, yet remains anchored in a 21st-century awareness of ecology and perception.
Light, for him, is not a tool but a character, revealing the fragility and sacredness of the natural world.

Eldorado: Gold, Mystery, and Uneasy Beauty

In his series Eldorado, Gadenne delves deeper into the mythic dimension of nature. Gold—symbol of wealth and conquest—appears as both a lure and a warning.
Lush vegetation, reflective surfaces, and stagnant waters compose ambiguous paradises, oscillating between dream and decay. These are mirages of desire, where beauty and loss coexist.

“I’m not trying to reproduce nature, but to create a space that evokes a sensation — a mix of fascination and unease.”

Conclusion: Art as a Window to Other Worlds

Through his contemplative practice, Bruno Gadenne reminds us of painting’s timeless power to slow down our gaze.
In a world of acceleration, his works invite us to pause, to look deeper, and to sense the wild beauty that persists beneath the surface.
His art, poised between spiritual ecology and the sublime, opens pathways toward worlds both inner and outer—where mystery, awe, and silence still have room to breathe.