In “Backyard Oasis”, during her trip to the American West Coast, French painter and photographer Ayline Olukman brings us along with her on an adventure. Between truth and fantasy, the road journey transforms into a woman's private experience of summer, blue sky, and freedom. A photographic painting of backyard evokes wonder, nostalgia for summer, California lifestyle. The scene is serene, natural, and meditative. The oil painting reinterprets the pictures, and we are aware that we are not in the scenes' actual reality but rather in a realm that is caught between fantastical imagery and physical reality.
A photographer, Ayline captures images of America that feel strangely familiar, and that seem to capture a moment suspended in time. She compares her paintings to stills from movies; constructing a scene for the viewer, only setting the tone, and inviting them to create their own personal narrative from her work. Ayline’s time on the road allows her to be completely free from boundaries, embracing the experiences on her journey. As she captures these adventures during her wanderings through her camera, she shares it with a reinterpretation on canvas with oil and the colors construct a completely new narrative.
The process of creating her work feels like her own movie. Ayline’s method of creating these pieces is similar to the technique of making a tapestry. The printed black and white photograph is affixed onto the canvas to create a second skin. Ayline prints her photographs, void of color, to add her own personality to the art. By painting in thin layers, she is able to add depth to the photograph. New colors emerge as she paints each layer; first a layer of blue, then yellow added on top creates a green. She also uses thick touches of oil paint to add in details to the photographs. This process is individually unique like Ayline herself, a traveler experiencing the joys and delights of life.
Ayline Olukman is widely exhibited in France, New York, Brussels, Basel, London, Gothenburg, Shanghai, Lisbon, and Istanbul. She has published 4 books based on photographs, texts, and paintings: Small Eternity (2012), America (2015), La Mue (2019), and Elysian Fields (2021). Originally from Strasbourg, France, it was in 2015 at Point B in Brooklyn where she had a residency and worked in New York until 2018. That year she was nominated as a Voies-Off finalist at the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles and also participated in the residency of the International Art Center of Shangjin in China. In 2019, she won the Prize of the Verzasca Foto Festival (Switzerland). She was nominated by Freelens for the MentorPrize in 2021. This year, 2022, she has multiple exhibitions in Paris, Bordeaux, Lisbon and in June will be her solo show at Galerie l’Atelier in Chelsea, New York.
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