Leaving SF III, 2019

Olivier Furter  

Olivier Furter is a Swiss artist born in 1962 who lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. The artist surrounds himself with images. We discover them stuck on the wall, placed on a table, leaning up against a shelf in a temporary arrangement. Random images, personal photos, bits and pieces of paper. Something – often almost nothing – might trigger his imagination – might lead to a painting. Or perhaps the unexpected may do the trick. If he enlarges an image, other visual surprises may well occur. A collection of indefinite and colorful traces, a treasure trove. A small cat, adopted from an animal rescue shelter, lounges in its chair outside the studio door. There's more than meets the eye. Indeed, what we see may well be an absence. Eyes usually make the face, yet in Olivier Furter's painting of an enlarged face, the nostrils are the focal point. Out of focus, the eyes don't appear, so to speak. What remains is 'the absence of'… – inviting us to seek other meanings in the painting. Likewise, in many of his painted landscapes, "the cloud is the star" and "a cloud moves so fast," says Oliver.  The focus in these paintings shifts to these new stars and their strange splendor captures our attention. Or the obviously stuffed creature the painter shows us in its snow and night setting! Surely, 'in the absence of…' reminds us of another creature? And so it's Olivier Furter's paintings that strangely transform nature and shift the senses.