Bruno Perramant was born in 1962 in Brest (France). His painting is both very erudite and very obscure. It only becomes clearer after the viewer has peeled away the layers of meaning and symbols that overlap. It is nourished by philosophy, cinema, literature, history, hagiography, as much text as image. In fact, texts, excerpts from poems, snatches of dialogue, quotes from a voice-over echoing in a film, among other types of statements, are embedded in several of her paintings, like subtitles in a film. Bruno Perramant has, for example, "adapted" scenes from documentaries or fiction into paintings.

In his latest work, he is particularly interested in a funereal imagery in the form of masquerade. In the Meessen De Clercq Gallery, two pivotal works form the centre of gravity of the exhibition. In his large polyptych Eatro delle arti, black has been given as much importance as the painter could muster, even to the point of monochrome. The four black canvases seem to act as pedestals for the four wrapped monuments that stand above them.

In his diptych The Instructor, Bruno Perramant is interested in the relationship between the spectrum and light. This theme allows him to use colour in a complex way and to question the space surrounding the painted forms.

The vibration of the brushstrokes gives his paintings a musicality and a breath of fresh air. This effect is evident in the diptych Vents contraires.

Some works call up other images, such as the canvas JRSLM, which brings to mind "fearful dogs that have no shelter [and that] silently follow dissatisfied men who struggle to live" (Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Poverty and Death). The painting Grotto No. 2 is also one of those works that act in sequence and trace a tree of meanings.

In each work, the tension is palpable but equivocal; the tumult answers silence, the darkness answers the luminous nimbus. In Bruno Perramant's work, night is not just the absence of light. It is a captivating void.