Yolande Batteau’s Latest Body of Work Reflects a Passionate Personal Investigation of Materials and Self
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Over the past three decades, multidisciplinary artist Yolande Batteau has traveled the world to study age-old artisanal practices, many of which are on the verge of extinction. She translates these techniques, and the mediums used to carry them out, into furniture, jewelry, and perhaps most famously, handmade wall coverings, inventively enhanced with gilded, painted, or plasterwork finishes and made through her Brooklyn atelier, Callidus Guild. Yet while Batteau investigates materials, she’s simultaneously doing a similar kind of work within herself—an act that Covid-19 kicked into high gear. “The pandemic made me stop, reflect, channel what’s important, and eliminate the white noise,” she says, deeming the experience a “time of growth and self-examination.” Soul searching features prominently in her latest body of work, aptly titled “Yolande Batteau: Introspective,” on view at New York’s decorative arts gallery Bernd Goeckler through May 28.