»NIGHTMARES« - THREE SOLO SHOWS BY ARTISTS SEBASTIAN GÖGEL, KETI KAPADNAZE AND EMELI THEANDER
09 Jun - 30 Jul 2011
»NIGHTMARES«
In the pictures and sculptures by the three artists, the concrete external world loses its fascination in comparison with the world of the subject. The subject’s truth always bears the character of fiction. It is a symbolic construction out of heterogeneous elements in which evidence, quotes and interpretations of the subject interfuse. In this way, fiction is not solely a “subjective” or “relative” truth but first and foremost an effective force.
The ambivalent effect caused by nightmares, visions, and often horror promises a poetic potential between angst and lust that has been firing art since the early days. On the basis of the “Art History of Horror” one can establish that this other traumatic world beyond borders is subject to an order. Within art, this “Order of the Subconscious” is marked by characteristics of style which are connected to the term of the formless (Bois/Krauss). Here, this does not mean negation of the form but rather the notion of its dissolution, the process of exceeding or penetrating the boundaries of the body.
The fact that Sebastian Gögel at times tattoos his phantasmagorical, amorphous drawings and paintings on human skin complies with a gesture of transgression – a recurrent theme in his intermedia work. A restraint force seems to constantly fight against a form of resistance, which can disrupt in an explosive or oozing way through his intensely opaque colours and strongly dripping or expanding forms. Thus, figures of a surreal world in which angst, anxiety and violence – the complete range of discomfort in culture ¬– find an expression and shatter the subject’s stability.
It is no accident that Keti Kapadnaze’s lateral, ornamental way of painting is reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s depiction of hell in “Garden of Delights” where the world’s spatial order gives way to permanent disorientation, a flotation in space. Character-like picture elements adhered to the surface of a genuinely artificial pictorial world – with no obvious hierarchy and forfeiting their instructor – are buzzing through translucent layers. The conflict lies in the apparent closeness to the decor as grimaces are lurking right behind elegance.
Emeli Theander’s painting concretizes on the border between the beautiful appearance and the weirdness of strange worlds. Her ghostly creatures in a dreamlike dark scenery reminiscent of Goya’s Caprici or Füssli’s Nightmare leave room for the fleeting and vague indulging in lust for shivers. These creatures are often childlike and they are trying to involve the viewers in their innocent diabolic game and to abduct them to their carnival worlds.
Private View STUTTGART
Thursday June 9th 2011, 7 – 10pm
Exhibition Dates
Friday June 10th – Saturday July 30, 2011
Gallery Hours
Tu – Fr 10am – 6pm, Sa 11am – 4pm,
or by appointment
Parrotta Contemporary Art
Augustenstr. 87-89
D-70197 Stuttgart
T +49.711.69947910
F +49.711.69947920
mail@parrotta.de
www.parrotta.de
In the pictures and sculptures by the three artists, the concrete external world loses its fascination in comparison with the world of the subject. The subject’s truth always bears the character of fiction. It is a symbolic construction out of heterogeneous elements in which evidence, quotes and interpretations of the subject interfuse. In this way, fiction is not solely a “subjective” or “relative” truth but first and foremost an effective force.
The ambivalent effect caused by nightmares, visions, and often horror promises a poetic potential between angst and lust that has been firing art since the early days. On the basis of the “Art History of Horror” one can establish that this other traumatic world beyond borders is subject to an order. Within art, this “Order of the Subconscious” is marked by characteristics of style which are connected to the term of the formless (Bois/Krauss). Here, this does not mean negation of the form but rather the notion of its dissolution, the process of exceeding or penetrating the boundaries of the body.
The fact that Sebastian Gögel at times tattoos his phantasmagorical, amorphous drawings and paintings on human skin complies with a gesture of transgression – a recurrent theme in his intermedia work. A restraint force seems to constantly fight against a form of resistance, which can disrupt in an explosive or oozing way through his intensely opaque colours and strongly dripping or expanding forms. Thus, figures of a surreal world in which angst, anxiety and violence – the complete range of discomfort in culture ¬– find an expression and shatter the subject’s stability.
It is no accident that Keti Kapadnaze’s lateral, ornamental way of painting is reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s depiction of hell in “Garden of Delights” where the world’s spatial order gives way to permanent disorientation, a flotation in space. Character-like picture elements adhered to the surface of a genuinely artificial pictorial world – with no obvious hierarchy and forfeiting their instructor – are buzzing through translucent layers. The conflict lies in the apparent closeness to the decor as grimaces are lurking right behind elegance.
Emeli Theander’s painting concretizes on the border between the beautiful appearance and the weirdness of strange worlds. Her ghostly creatures in a dreamlike dark scenery reminiscent of Goya’s Caprici or Füssli’s Nightmare leave room for the fleeting and vague indulging in lust for shivers. These creatures are often childlike and they are trying to involve the viewers in their innocent diabolic game and to abduct them to their carnival worlds.
Private View STUTTGART
Thursday June 9th 2011, 7 – 10pm
Exhibition Dates
Friday June 10th – Saturday July 30, 2011
Gallery Hours
Tu – Fr 10am – 6pm, Sa 11am – 4pm,
or by appointment
Parrotta Contemporary Art
Augustenstr. 87-89
D-70197 Stuttgart
T +49.711.69947910
F +49.711.69947920
mail@parrotta.de
www.parrotta.de