Baptiste Tavernier

Baptiste Tavernier is a French artist who has lived more than a decade in Japan. He pursues a creative path that has led him from experimental music through traditional Japanese arts & crafts and martial arts to the painter’s canvas. His works all revolve around the theme of mazes and labyrinths. Tavernier studied at Paris University digital arts and musical composition, influenced by Paul Klee and composers like Gerard Grisey, Salvatore Sciarrino or Steve Reich.

What motivates you to be an artist?

In my labyrinthine abstractions I try to address the impact of human decisions on our environment. Social and political erring ways, careless urbanisation at the expense of nature, blind consumerism, etc.

Why is art important to you?

Trace Tavernier’s polymath oeuvre and you find: intense concern with pattern and logic; relentless focus on the discipline of craft; and creative inspiration without horizons.

“Although the labyrinth’s myths generally refer to long-lost civilisations, the world I depict is often set in a distant future, a prospective result of the sum of modern societies’ choices. Depraved cities are generally its central character.”