The artist.

Philippe Pastor (b. 1961) has a wide-ranging practice encompassing painting, sculpture and mixed-media techniques. A determined advocate for the preservation of nature, Pastor creates works that are inspired by the most pressing environmental issues and which urge for action to combat the climate crisis.

Pastor represented the Principality of Monaco at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2009, and at Milan Expo 2015. He has collaborated with the United Nations, supporting and participating in the ‘Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign’, and is also the founder of the Art & Environment Association, launched in 2007 under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2004.

His paintings have been shown in exhibitions internationally, and sculptures from the series Les Arbres Brûlés have been acquired for private collections and public installation, including at the United Nations Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya; Nice International Airport, France; Château des Marres, Saint Tropez, France; Gare du Nord, Paris, France; and Museo del Parco, Portofino, Italy.

Monochrome encapsulates the artist's expressive and intuitive approach to painting. His abstract compositions are made using natural pigments, which imbue the work with an impactful materiality, and which the artist sources from Morocco. He was inspired to use this almost three-dimensional technique using raw pigments following a visit to the Lascaux Cave in France which showed how our ancestors sought to make sense and depict the world around them.

The essence of Pastor's paintings are linked to his desire to raise awareness of the need to protect our planet, evoking the beauty and the precarity of the natural world. Monochrome is at once alluring, with its blue cracks juxtaposing the sand-coloured surface, but also shocking in the fissured surface which appears like scorched earth, destroyed by drought.

In addition to precise placement and manipulation of his materials, the artist also allows chance to partake in the process, a kind of partnership with Nature. The artist integrates the environmental elements into the very fabric of his paintings; after applying paint to the canvas, he often exposes the pieces to rain, wind and fire, allowing these natural processes of change and weathering to shape the final outcome of the work.