Gouffres (Abysses) developed in 2016 consists of 16 drawings. The series inaugurates a new stage since his works were previously presented as diptychs or single drawings. In Gouffres we are faced with a cinematographic sequence, a contact sheet.
Conceived in a methodical and organized manner like all his work, the artist primarily uses the sketch as a means of research. Geometry and perspective play an important role in his process. In his meticulous approach he questions the relationship to scale but also to the body, using his own as a referential measure.
The spectator is caught by the force of the opposite flows drawn and directly submerged by the drawing.
The drawings, often marouflaged on wood, an attempt to transform fragility into robustness, are then placed on the ground like sculptures. They question the relationship to the ground, is it an immersion in the abysses or an elevation?
In the vast majority of Bonardet’s works, tectonic plates telescope, cracks appear and create a space of rupture which, beyond its formal aspect, certainly refers to the whole symbolism of human relationships.

Born in 1989, in France | Lives and works in Paris.
Graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2013. Dirtying his paintings to the point of greyness, he quickly abandons his paint tubes for pencil and gradually turns to his current technique. In 2011, he spends his year at Hunter College in New York. From the influence of artists such as Richard Serra or Robert Smithson he draws his graphic and minimalist features, while integrating into his work a real practice of the body. Mathieu Bonardet has been the winner of various competitions: the Diamond Prize (2010), the agnès b. des amis des Beaux-Arts Prize (2011), the drawing prize of the cabinet des amateurs (2013), the 34th International Takifuji Art Award (2013). In 2015 he is a finalist for the Palais de Tokyo Discovery Prize. His work has been exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Angers, the König Gallery in Berlin and the Ferme du Buisson.
He is represented by the Jean Brolly Gallery (Paris).