In the works of artist Bruno Pontiroli, reality doesn’t disappear: it keeps existing, but it stops obeying its own rules. Animals strike impossible poses, bodies bend beyond the limits of anatomy and forms turn into improbable balancing acts, suspended between irony and unease. At first glance, his paintings seem to belong to a playful universe, almost straight out of a dream. But linger a few moments longer and you realise that behind these images lies a deeper question: why are we so used to considering natural only what we already know?
The French artist’s painting springs precisely from this rift between what we see and what we believe to be possible. Rather than building worlds entirely alien to our own, Pontiroli takes familiar elements and combines them in unexpected ways, altering the relationships between humans, animals and their environment. The result is not simply surreal: it is an invitation to look at the everyday from a different perspective, freeing it for a moment from the rigidity of convention. Pontiroli’s hallmark is the way he blurs the line between human and animal. In his compositions, the creatures are not just the protagonists of bizarre scenes: they become a means of exploring the body as something unstable, malleable and unpredictable. Legs, necks and backs twist into configurations that seem to defy gravity; figures interlock, flip over and hold each other up, creating a kind of impossible choreography.
What makes these scenes so effective is the contrast between the strangeness of the subjects and the precision of the painting. Pontiroli works mainly in oils on canvas and panel, building his images through a gradual process that begins with sketches and proceeds in layers, until volumes, nuances and details take shape. The technical care makes even the most absurd situations believable: despite what they depict, the figures seem to have an internal coherence of their own. It is precisely this credibility that makes the sense of disorientation all the more interesting.
Humour is an essential part of his work, but it isn’t there just to raise a smile. The artist uses paradox to challenge the expectations through which we interpret the world. A body in an impossible position or an animal that seems to have forgotten its own nature breaks our automatic way of reading images: for a moment, we no longer know what to expect. The works don’t impose a single explanation. The title Le Sens Dessus Dessous, for example, evokes the idea of an upside-down world, while Un Éléphant Ne Se Trompe Jamais plays, in its very name, with a seemingly absolute certainty. The titles, too, are part of the artist’s mechanism: they suggest a meaning, but leave open the possibility that the image will contradict it.
Over the years, Pontiroli has developed a distinctive visual language, shown in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, the United States and Australia. His solo shows include Histoires Naturelles & Grotesques at the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles in 2024, and Bêtises at the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle in 2023. His work sits within the landscape of contemporary Surrealist painting, while retaining a personal imagery built on unpredictable associations and a constant focus on the physical presence of the figures.
What sets his works apart is that they don’t necessarily ask to be deciphered. Before we even look for a meaning, they invite us to pause in front of an image, to be surprised by a detail and to accept that something may slip past logic. In a world where we are used to classifying, explaining and finding a purpose for everything, Pontiroli opens up a space in which incongruity is not an error to be fixed, but a possibility to be explored. Perhaps this is the most interesting meaning of his painting: it reminds us that imagination doesn’t always have to make the world easier to understand; sometimes, it can make it wider.
