The works shown in the exhibition represent two very different oeuvres, that at first glance appear almost as antipodes but at the same time start entering a tantalizing dialogue through their rather opposite artistic approaches and executions.

“Being in the moment”
The act of making a painting  is to Theophile Arcelin a meditation. What matters to him is to achieve a meditative state, the real “meat” of the painting emerges from that place. He notes that if he tries to force, or use excessive willfulness, or tries to impose his rational mind onto the images taking form at the end of his brush, he will most often be met with a very unsatisfactory result.

In his urban-scape paintings, he tries to create a synthesis of realism and abstraction that expressively translates the everyday reality of metropolitan forms and life, skyscrapers, streets, cars, stop signs, and sidewalks into paintings of urban geometry and motion, light and shadow that uniquely compress the spirit of a place.