PIERRE GERVOIS

PAINTER OF THE UNTOLD

New York City

The “To Allege” series has been created in Pierre Gervois’ studio in New York City in April 2020 during the COVID- 19 confinement in effect in the state of New York, using discarded canvases found in the streets of his Brooklyn neighborhood (Bedford-Stuyvesant).

As Pierre Gervois was running low on black paint, he diluted the remaining black paint with white paint to create this grey color, never used before to paint his subjects. “To Allege” is composed of seven paintings of different sizes (the first four paintings of the series having the same size). Pierre Gervois applied multiple layers of white latex paint on the surface of each canvas, leaving just the topographic traces of the original pictures & paintings now laying beneath the paintings. During the confinement period, as our lives are temporarily suspended, the artist explores who we really are: Is it our alleged lives, where we present ourselves in a perfectly polished way, or shall we leave the scars of our past to outcrop? These paintings are made to be observed very closely, under different lightings, to reveal the topographic details.

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege I (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 22 x 22 inches (56 x 56 cm)

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege II (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 22 x 22 inches (56 x 56 cm)

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege III (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 22 x 22 inches (56 x 56 cm)

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege IV (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 22 x 22 inches (56 x 56 cm)

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege V (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 16 x 20 inches (40 x 50 cm)

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege VI (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 12 x 16inches (30 x 40 cm)

Pierre Gervois (b. 1969)

To Allege VII (2020), Latex paint on canvas, 24 x 29 inches (61 x 75 cm)