Vicky Colombet’s Aerial Vistas Flatten Time and Space

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind one of their latest works.

Bio: Vicky Colombet, 71, New York and Paris (@vicky.colombet)

Title of work: Flying Back Home (2024).

Where to see it: “Flying Back Home” at Fernberger Gallery (747 N Western Ave, Suite B, Los Angeles) until December 21.

Three words to describe it: Abstract, landscape, aerial.

What was on your mind at the time: “Flying Back Home” is the title of the exhibition. I became American in 2013. I am traveling and crossing the Atlantic quite often, looking from above, a metaphor of life and choices between two countries. The before and after. France, where I am coming from, and America where I chose to live. The aerial views of water unfolding and folding, the coastlines of the East Coast appearing as I am almost back home. Coastlines are fractals and are quite identical East or West, a question of details and scales. Aerial views and fractals are important characteristics of my work.

An interesting feature that’s not immediately noticeable: When you look at images and reproductions of my paintings, they appear to be 3D as if they were made with thick paint or impasto. But the surfaces of my paintings are totally flat and smooth almost as if they were photographs. I use pure pigments, which are like particles from the cosmos, and give unique vibrations and an emotional resonance. No brushstrokes, either. The minimization of the hand reinforces a sense of magic and the idea that my paintings are direct expressions of the Earth they symbolically or metaphorically evoke.

How it reflects your practice as a whole: My work is an advocacy for the beauty of nature and how we relate to it. Reflection, Contemplation.

One song that captures its essence: John Cage’s “4’33” (Silence).