Downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) is proud to announce its next major solo show. Histoires Naturelles & Grotesques, featuring new works from French painter Bruno Pontiroli, is set to premiere November 2^nd in Gallery 3.

From his dreamlike visions, Pontiroli conjures up surreal and fantastic universes. His terrifically twisted oil paintings offer mind-bending explorations of the relationship between humans and animals, painting limber cows doing impressive handstands or an over-eager man embracing a large walrus, much to its chagrin. 

Regarding his new works, Pontiroli shares, “Absurd humor is a form of humor that goes against the normal order of things, leading to an illogic, and whose aim is to provoke laughter. Human beings are constantly looking to make sense of things, and my work evolves in opposition to this, seeking to deconstruct what reason defines as ‘normal,’ to highlight that, in the end, there is no sense.”

He adds, “With this new body of work, I tried to explore a different direction, while maintaining the desire not to take anything seriously. Here the bodies twist, mix, and also metamorphose in scenes that are as diverse as they are absurd. The animal world is a great source of inspiration for my work. Each new subject is a challenge for me because while I create these absurd scenes, I also try to do it respecting the forms, colors, and textures of the original subjects. I think that allows me to give more strength to the absurd staging that I propose. Anyway, in the end, my intention, by challenging the natural order of things, remains to invite the viewer to question and laugh.”

In previewing the upcoming show, which features 12 new works, Colossal’s Grace Ebert writes (6/4/24): “The Lyon-based artist is known for his wild contortions that twist the fierce and ferocious into the playfully bizarre…Pontiroli’s latest paintings exaggerate the animals’ strange characteristics and yoga-esque inversions, which he takes to greater extremes than his previous works…”

About Bruno Pontiroli:

Born in 1981, French painter Bruno Pontiroli studied the fine arts in Paris. Pontiroli creates surreal worlds inhabited by fantasy characters: centaurs, mermaids, and other creatures that contradict all laws of nature. In his poetic and mysterious paintings, we can see the unlikely become a reality. The artist brings to life all our childhood dreams and gives us a new way to see the world.