The artist

Born in the sound and fury of Algeria’s war, Bernard Gast spends part of his childhood in La Rochelle (France)
He mainly studies humanities : law, art history, plastic arts… He holds a D.E.A. in Philosophy (Psychoanalysis and Aesthetic).
After 10 years in corporate communication, he lets loose with the security of salaried status to dedicate totally to art… But keeps a little time for clinical (Psychoanalysis) and philosophical research (Aesthetic, Art critic…).
All this theoretical and practical energy releases a unique way of creating, a singular style... A discovery Bernard Gast theorizes and sums up in this way : “I paint a Paintless Painting with 35mm films from cinema !”. His "pictures" indeed suggest all the ideas and the historical forms of painting in particular, and visual arts in general (Abstract, Kinetic Art, New Figuration movement, Cubism, Pop art, Surrealism, Minimalism, Graffiti, Social Realism, Photojournalism, Poetic Realism, cinema Nouvelle Vague, etc.).
About twenty artists in the world think and realize works, more or less related to cinema. So we can note John Baldassari, Jeff Wall,...

Certainly, Bernard Gast's work seems multi-form, but its unity essentially comes from his approach. With the only "raw material" of movie stills, his artistic language always refers to painting. Liberating himself from the raw material of painting, works of this contemporary visual artist constantly echoe with the spirit of painting. Sending back to painting, he names himself his approach Peinture-sans-Peinture (Paintless-Painting). This is probably what made Olivier Michelon* say : “the works of Bernard Gast are far more pictorial than Painting !”.

* Olivier Michelon, Curator in Art Centre Georges Pompidou for the exhibition Pictures movement (art, Cinema)

Main exhibitions

• Canadian Cultural Center (Paris), France
• Museum of Nature Study (Orléans), France
• Nuit blanche (Sleepless Night) : Seine at Trocadéro (Paris), France
• Museum of Maltwood (Victoria British Columbia), Canada
• Museum-Palace Saint-Vaast (Arras), France
• EDF, Installation : The corridor of sensations (Paris), France 
• La Maroquinerie (the leather store) (Paris), France
• Contemporary Art Museum of Joliette (Québec), Canada
• Gallery of the french National Congress (Paris), France
• Grand Palais Museum, Figuration critique (Paris), France
• Renaud Richebourg Gallery with Macréau (Paris), France
• Blue Palm Gallery (Los Angeles), USA
• York Quay Gallery (Toronto), Canada
• International Gallery of Portrait (Hambourg), Germany
• Rune Gallery (Genève), Swiss
• Kishi Gallery (Osaka), Japan
• Le Plateau-Mont-Royal (Montréal), Canada
• France Télévisions, performance & installation (Paris), France 
• Neufchâtel Gallery (Québec), Canada
• H.I.A. PERCY Clamart (Paris), France
• Museum of Tuzla, International Gallery of Portrait (Tuzla), Bosnie
• Salon de Montrouge, France
• Gallery le Grenier des Artistes (Paris), France
• Le Tunnel, action & Installation : I is also the other one (Paris), France

Public and private collections

H. Georges Pompidou (Paris), France - Museum of Tuzla, Bosnie - Museum Saint-Vaast (Arras), France - National Library of, Canada - Library of Belfort, France - etc
Private collections (France, USA, Germany, Netherland, Japan, Canada, etc.)

Editions, awards, tv appearances & researches

Awards

CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), France (Artpress Magazine national competition
: Convergences Art & Sciences)...

TV Appearances

France 2 (Clip de l'Association Aides) – TF1 (Les restos du cœur) – France 3 (40° à l'ombre)...

Editions

• De ma nuit naît ton jour (Livre-objet : 21 ex.) – Roselins Editions-Jacques Fournier, Canada
• 3 chercheurs, 1 trouvère (Dvd limité à 33 ex.) – CNRS Editions
• Premiers désordres – Editions Alain Avila & Gallery le grenier des artistes
• Portrait drawings – Editions International Gallery of Portrait (Tuzla), Bosnie
• Manifeste de Galerie Intime – Editions GI
• Limited Editions of Chambres Sensibles (Dvd) – Editions GI
• All that is pictures ! – Editions GI
• Paint with the movies of the cinema – Editions GI
• Get rid the veil – Editions GI
• Poems of left hand – Editions GI

Researches

• Is the creative act a state of modified consciousness ? in 'The creativity' – L'Harmattan Editions
• Alain Bashung : Of the secret in… (Incidences of the secret of paternal filiation) – Editions GI
• Last work : quintessence of the being for certain artists ? – Editions GI