Julien Colombier’s new works are the next step in an innate path that he has been following for several years. His motifs, both vegetal and mineral, have been colonising an ever-growing array of spaces, whether in the form of murals or drawings mounted on canvas. The plants grow like a jungle, a rainforest with a hot and humid climate favouring inexorable growth and extinguishing any attempt at domestication.
This is how I have always regarded Colombier’s works as fragments of uncontrollable freedom. Admittedly, at first glance, they are contained, framed by the edges of the painting, which is more than ever “an open window on the world”. But it is not hard to imagine the plants spreading beyond them. There is also the question of the depth of his work. Palm fronds, leaves, and foliage obstruct the field of view. They are, in a way, the tree that hides the forest.