Juliet Vles

Juliet Vles is a contemporary painter who incorporates glass and mixed media on surfaces and has exhibited extensively in Switzerland and France. Since 1994 she has been featured in almost 30 solo exhibitions with notable shows in France including at the Natural History Museum in Tolouse, the Paul Ricard Cultural Center, and Galerie des Tanneries. Juliet has been published in Anima Mundi, VIND magazine, Arts Illustrated and in critical essays written by David Lanstedt and Tijs Ulevel. To date her work has been listed or featured in over 40 publications. In 2016, the artist represented Switzerland among forty other nations in the ConsulArt in the Musée de l'Artisanat et des Métiers d'Art (MAMA) in Marseille.

The paintings have reflective surfaces from glass and / or textured appearances from mixed media similar to the look of concrete or aged plaster. Compositions can vary from having modernist tendencies similar to cubism with portions of the paintings filled with geometric abstractions to more contemporary inclinations with angular proclivity and vast portions of negative spaces. Juliet works in four formats of wallscapes, glassworks, works on paper, and transcerebral themed art. For the purposes of the article we will be focusing on the wallscape and glass-incorporated paintings.The wallscape paintings have relief sculptural elements attached to two dimensional canvas while the glassworks are pieces with mixed materials and portions of glass shaped and strategically placed on the focal point of the painting. With heavy use of white and off-whites, the art consistently incorporates red, earth tones, and variations of gray.

Solaris 13 (pictured above) remains one of Juliet’s most unique and bold pieces. Unlike the rest of the body of art, Solar 13 has representational illusions of perspective incorporated. The placement of glass next to a stick of wood near the center of the canvas gives off an almost door-like appearance, as if entering a room. Strategically filled with harsh angles and a glass square, the painting has an overall architectural-like appearance. Although unclear whether intentional or accidental, the left of center triangle has a shadow cast upon the form from the door-like apparatus to the right. As if a harsh light has sprung up on an entrance greeting the viewer. Highly likely the ‘shadow’ was intended as an abstracted neutral shape to divide the triangle rather than act as an exercise in perspective and representation. The vast amounts of negative space behaves like a mouse’s maze zig-zagging across the edges in a total circumference. If we were to break down the composition to the basic form, the painting reflects an upside down T with an X slightly off center. A very complex painting which offers an exercise in the extremities of perspective and distortions.

Juliet Vles creates breathtaking paintings which make clever use of negative space and geometry. The interactions between warm and neutral tones creates a soothing atmosphere of ambient reflection as if heat were entering a vast space. With rugged intuition combined with refined elegance, these compositions bloom towards a network of optical distortions regarding the relationship between two - and three dimensionality. Beautiful and spirited, these works convey Juliet’s artistic maturity and understanding of creating fascinating art which remains eloquent and with composed stimulation rather than instant gratification.