An extraordinary encounter between two visionary artists—Sally Gabori from Australia and Forrest Bess from Texas—takes place in the heart of the Swiss Alps. Hosted at the Opale Foundation, the only European institution dedicated to contemporary Aboriginal art, this exhibition offers a rare dialogue between two self-taught masters of inner landscapes.
A Bridge Between Distant Islands: Australia Meets Texas on Canvas
Sally Gabori, a Kaiadilt woman forcibly removed from her native island, discovered painting in her 80s. Her work transforms memory into pure emotion through vibrant colors and vast compositions rooted in her ancestral homeland.
Forrest Bess, a reclusive Texan fisherman, developed a deeply personal cosmology inspired by Jungian theory, ancient rituals, and his quest for spiritual wholeness.
Though their lives and styles never intersected, their art mirrors each other in raw intensity, silent reverence, and metaphysical power.
“Beneath the Reflections of the World”: Exploring the Unseen
Curated by Samuel Gross and Georges Petitjean, the exhibition is more than a showcase—it’s an immersive interior landscape. Gabori’s monumental canvases ripple along the walls like tides of memory, while Bess’s small visionary paintings open dreamlike portals at the center of the space. Every piece vibrates with presence; nothing is merely decorative.
When Painting Becomes a Geography of the Soul
Gabori doesn’t depict landscapes—she evokes them. Her paintings are luminous explosions that recall lost islands, broken bonds, and ancestral ties.
In contrast, Bess reduces his inner visions into symbolic minimalism: cryptic codes blending Western philosophy and archaic spirituality, reaching toward the essence of being.
Two Self-Taught Artists, One Urgency: To Exist Through Art
Both artists turned to painting as a visceral necessity.
Gabori, silenced for decades by cultural displacement, found in art a way to reclaim identity and rebirth.
Bess, a philosopher-fisherman, transformed his outsider status into mystical vision and artistic form.
credit Simon Strong
Artist Biographies
Sally Gabori (c. 1924–2015)
Born on Bentinck Island (Australia), Gabori survived a cyclone that led to the displacement of her entire community. Silenced by colonization, she rediscovered her voice through painting at age 81. Her large-scale works translate Kaiadilt myths, places, and emotions into sweeping waves of color, establishing her as a major figure in contemporary Indigenous art before her death in 2015.
Forrest Bess (1911–1977)
Born in Texas, Bess lived a solitary life as a fisherman and mystic. Supported briefly by New York gallerist Betty Parsons, he created small paintings based on visions, dreams, and a lifelong spiritual search. Blending Jungian psychology, ancient symbolism, and hermaphroditic mythology, his works are visual mantras—enigmatic, meditative, and deeply personal.
An Unprecedented Dialogue at the Opale Foundation
Gabori’s radiant murals embrace the room, while Bess’s concentrated panels hold its core. Their contrast creates a compelling balance: emotional vastness versus introspective depth.
This isn’t a search for similarity—it’s a celebration of difference, revealing a shared urgency to express the invisible and speak through silence.
Don’t Miss This Rare Exhibition in the Swiss Alps
“Beneath the Reflections of the World” runs through November 16 at the Opale Foundation in Lens, Switzerland—a landscape as spiritually charged as the works it hosts. This exhibition is a sensory journey across oceans, myths, and traumas. It reminds us what art is meant to do: speak when words fall short.