With the French expression “Bon” Marc Raven refers to the moment until the next action in painting: will this finish the painting or will it be the start of further painting. Marc Raven puts stretched canvases or pieces of wood on the floor. He drips paint over them, makes brushstrokes, takes a piece of cloth, or cardboard, or plastic and saws or doesn’t saw. Maybe he will put a line or a word. There is resistance to a predetermined method or theme. There are interruptions, a work is forgotten and possibly picked up again later. This continues until there is a painting. It is never clear when this will happen. There is a surface: bumpy, cracked, tarnished. As if time has crept into each work and continues to haunt it.

“Bon” also means something else to Marc Raven. By pronouncing “Bon” the professional cook indicates having heard and understood and thus will carry out the chef’s order. Marc Raven worked in professional kitchens for 18 years, first as a cook, then as a chef, to finance his vocation as a painter. This back and forth between two activities that both demand great dedication and concentration created tension and a constant feeling of lack of time. At the moment, Marc Raven does not work as a chef, but with this exhibition he wishes to include his years in the kitchen by giving it the title “Bon”. Although the combination of painting and professional cooking was frustrating at times, they belonged together for 18 years.

Marc Raven (Amsterdam, 1968) studied at the AKI Enschede and the KABK The Hague. He lives and works in Amsterdam.

Exhibition info here