For Gauthier, the repeated drawing of a singular chair becomes an act of devotion. The practice recalls the meditative discipline of artists and monks alike: returning to the same subject not to duplicate it, but to see more deeply each time. The chair becomes a kind of visual mantra.
One of the most universal human forms, the chair carries deep symbolic resonance. It suggests presence and absence simultaneously. A chair waits. It holds the trace of the body. It can imply authority, intimacy, solitude, conversation, rest, grief, contemplation, or welcome. In art history and psychology alike, the chair often acts as a stand-in for the human figure itself—a portrait without a body.
Gauthier’s hand-drawn lines reveal time, attention, and presence. Nothing feels rushed. Each drawing becomes a quiet conversation between artist and object, an intimate study of form that slowly transforms into something
emotional and almost alive.
There is something profoundly democratic about the chair. Nearly everyone carries a memory connected to one: a grandmother’s kitchen chair, a school chair, a hospital chair, a seat left empty. Chairs quietly witness human life while absorbing emotional residue and personal history.
In Gauthier’s work, the ordinary is elevated through sustained attention. Through drawing, painting, adding notes, and collage, he returns to the same chair repeatedly, asking us to slow down and reconsider what we often overlook. The repetition becomes not redundancy, but revelation.
The work on view in Held invites stillness. They ask viewers not simply to look, but to sit mentally within the work — reflecting on memory, presence, ritual, and the quiet poetry contained within everyday forms.
Held is on exhibit at the Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL) Lobby Gallery through mid-August, 2026.
Kathleen Laucius
Senior Director of Creative and Art Curator at Omega