Pascale Bilgis grew up in a small village in Burgundy, France, and later in Dijon for her studies. At the age of 18, she left her homeland to continue her studies at the University of South Carolina where she received her BA in photography. After graduating, she worked as an archaeological photographer in southern Turkey and as an art assistant at the Pierre LOTI French School of Istanbul. While in Turkey she began to pursue a new passion for painting and ceramics. She moved back to the States in 2016 and became very active in the artist community in South Carolina. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the state and has won numerous awards. She is a member of South Carolina Artists and currently lives in Lexington, SC. Learn more about the artist at her website.
HOME – New work
A multimedia artist focusing on landscapes, in her series Home, Bilgis recalls significant landscapes from her own life: the small French village of her childhood; Turkey, where she worked as an archeological photographer; and her current home, South Carolina. Working in acrylic, Bilgis splits her compositions into geometric sections using different color palettes to show the landscapes in different times of day or different seasons. She adds buildings in ceramic or wood relief. The architecture of the buildings helps identify her landscapes as belonging to specific regions: she creates the simple cottages of rural France, the bustling cityscape of Istanbul, and the nostalgic country houses of South Carolina. She chooses to show the buildings in ceramic relief to emphasize the durability of human habitations in contrast to the natural world, which reflects the changing seasons. “As the landscape is ever changing, homes remain in their original state,” Bilgis says.
Little Flat People – Mixed media
In her exhibition, Little Flat People, Bilgis seamlessly blends two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements to demonstrate the fundamental similarities between people. The artist presents little figures set among pebbles, wood frames, and panels with vibrant abstract expressionist landscapes as backgrounds. “After 2 years creating vivid abstract landscapes with ceramic architectural relief, I wanted to keep working with clay and acrylic colors but in a more meaningful way. One day while collecting pebbles on a beach in southern Turkey, I came up with the “Flat Little People” series,“ Bilgis explains. Made of clay and fired at 2000 degrees, the figures all look alike in that they are flat and uniform, but in truth they are not “flat” at all, they seem to be very lively and interesting. It is up to the viewer to imagine their emotions through their postures and implied actions.
Bilgis is one of the more than 100 artists whose work will be shown at the Cottontown Art Crawl on March 12th in Columbia, SC.