Le Berceau de Demain by Justine Formentelli
Title: Le Berceau de Demain
Artist: Justine Formentelli
Medium: Acrylic on paper mounted on board
Size: 29.7 cm x 42 cm
Justine Formentelli (b.1973) lives and works in London. She gained an MFA from City and Guilds of London in 2018. After completing a BA in Illustration from Atlanta College of Art, USA, Formentelli remained in the US working as a Production Designer at Harpers Bazarre. Her practice is deeply concerned with the external world and how it permeates us on a profound level, connecting us all by way of an existential flow that moves through and around us. Using transparent, watery veils of paint, she blurs the distinction between foreground and background, examining the interplay between inner self and outer world. Whether drawing inspiration from the human body, the vegetal realm, or the mineral world, Formentelli sets up encounters between different forms, which at times merge and fuse into one another.
"In my work, I am often drawn to what lies underground, beneath visible surfaces. My
process alternates between overlapping transparent layers and excavating previous
layers through sanding and erasing. This interplay between revealing and concealing
takes me through unforeseen detours, even when I begin with a specific intention.
"In these deserted yet serene landscapes, I wanted to evoke the quiet percolation of a
new order—a hidden transformation taking place beneath the surface. The heron’s silent flight, the slow return of spring, and the struggle for justice all exist in the tension
between presence and disappearance. The mountainous forms envelop the landscape
and the budding season in a protective embrace, while everywhere, things are in
motion: water is bubbling, green leaves are pushing through, and herons are returning
home.
"These pieces meditate on the clandestine pulse of existence—the heron returning to its hidden nest, the activist fighting beyond sight, and the season that is more longing than arrival. In that liminal space between solitude and renewal, I seek to capture the quiet insistence of life pressing forward."