Culture
Through the eyes of the artist (1)
Contemporary art, some say you love it or you hate it! or maybe you may just need some time to appreciate it, to understand it, to feel the emotions like you would looking at a Dürer or a Caravage’ s painting.
Many people mingled through the alleys of the Art International Fair in Zurich a few days ago to admire or buy contemporary art. Private artists and gallery owners had come from all over the world as far as China, Japan, Korea, Russia, the United States or Israel to exhibit the most beautiful, colorful, interesting, unusual and bizarre pieces of art you could imagine.
Mountain ghosts from Rolf Bräm at the Art International Fair in Zurich
No matter if it was graffiti, metal staples art, oil & acrylic paintings, wood, glass or metal sculptures, photos, prints, art on rusty sheet of metals, abstract painting, painting on linen paper or Japanese paper, paintings with resin or Plexiglas or Pop Art, all the artwork sparked off emotions in the viewers.
The artists, who had put so much time, energy and love in the art they came to present, chatted with the visitors. Some stands had Champagne, chocolates or nuts. The atmosphere at the Congress hall was very convivial.
The highlights were :
- Swiss artist, Manuella Muerner-Marioni with her paintings using recycling and her mirror figure sculptures:
At the fair Manuella came with some paintings and figure sculptures. She says she always has been interested by the light phenomena so she uses acrylic colors because they shine in the light. Her three dimensional mirror sculptures are unique. On one figure you can find pieces of CD’s glued on. What you see changes when you move around.
Manuella Muerner-Marioni with her mirror figure sculptures at Art International
“My sculptures convey the mystery of a never-ending visual experience” she wrote in 2011. Her atelier is in Bern but you can find her artwork everywhere in the world at art fairs and in galleries. This year she will be at the Whitney Gallery in New York and at the Rayko Alexiev Gallery in Sofia until October 30th. She has been featured in art books and magazines in Italy, Great Britain, Germany and in the United States. You can also see her designs on bags, hats, tee-shirts and calendars.
Click here for more information about Manuella’s artwork.
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Belgian artist Claude Roegiers with “Traveling Still”:
He came to Zurich with some artwork from his newest collection “Traveling Still”, which was shown for the first time in March in his home country, Belgium. Claude Roegiers explains he changes theme every 1 1/2 year. He uses imprecise photos to create a mystery. He explains how important it is for him to share emotions via images. “The emotion is timeless and becomes contemporary.”
Claude Roegiers with his photo artwork at Art International in Zurich
His work is amazing using a technique called “warp and weft” effect, which covers his paintings with white shading. Claude Roegiers has recently changed style after 25 years working as an abstract painter, interested in geometry. He started painting in California while working in the fashion business. He has been published in many magazines such as “Résidences”, “Déco Idées” and “Villas”. This year before Zurich he has been in many contemporary art fairs in Metz, Berlin, Aix en Provence and in New York.
He is now working on a new series called “Portraits of women” to be finished hopefully in 2013. He wants to show feminine beauty across centuries. The series will be made of 15-20 women without clothing in a 120×120 format surrounded by a gold frame. Why naked? he says smiling. “Not, because I like nudity but it makes it timeless”. Who knows, he mentions he could even have Lady Gaga. That would be something!
“I already lost some of my women” he shares jokingly while saying he wanted to show me something in the backroom. “Come and see”, he adds. There he shows me what the upcoming series will look like. One of his women, a beautiful young lady with a tiny bit of pink color lays on the floor, carefully wrapped up. He confesses he recently sold two in New York very quickly but by accident. They were only a back-up to the paintings exhibited, which were sold the first day of the fair
All of this is very promising and a good sign for the future.
For more information click here .
- Lithuanian artist Simona Petrauskaite and her metal staple art
Her work is impressive, making various shapes with staples and covering them with gold or leaving them like it is. What is amazing is how many staples she uses, between 30,000 to 100,000. She calls it drawing with staples. She came to Zurich with some of her artworks like her tree, bird nest and ball, which had between 40,000 to 60,000 staples. In total Simona has finished up to 12 metal staple drawings.
It is hard work and she can only press staples 4-5 hours a day to prevent blisters. She used to wear gloves but not anymore. In addition she explains she has to rent a place which is sound proof. As you can imagine, she tells me it is extremely noisy. She makes everything alone even putting the gold, which takes as long as stapling.
Simona Petrauskaite at Art International in Zurich
The idea for this technique came to Simona in 2006. Why this? I asked .”I wanted to surprise someone”. One day she was done painting with acrylic and started stapling the back of the wood. While doing this she thought it looked like a drawing and decided to experiment.
In 2007 she exhibited her first metal staple artwork at the renown “Haus der Kunst” in Munich, where she lives and works. Working with gold came later only in 2011 when the town of Schwabach had a competition”Drawing with gold”. She joined and won the public prize with “Strohlballen I”, which can be seen since June of this year at the courthouse of Schwabach in Bavaria.
She mentioned she has not traveled to too many foreign countries yet apart from the United States (Miami) and Austria (Innsbruck) because transport and mailing is not easy and rather expensive. Everything has to be thought of carefully. The staples are on massive wood and it can weigh depending on the size of the work between 10-12kg (1x1m) to 30 kg (170×170).
You can find more information her website here.
- Swiss artist Joachim Oettli with his “O” Phenomenon collection
Joachim, from the Schaffhausen region, studied Art in Zurich before getting a master in Wallis. He has been painting for 27 years and tried everything gouache, oil, acrylic he says. His paintings have decorated the rooms of a hotel in Lucerne. Lately he worked on a new collection called “The O Phenomenon”. He made 18 tall paintings from extremely bright to darker colors with some Swarovski crystals on some of them. The one with more peaceful tones of green and yellow has 18 layers of paint, he points out.
Joachim Oettli with his “O” Phenomenon paintings at Art International in Zurich
Definitely his new collection won’t leave you indifferent and you will say “Oh” seeing it. When passing by the red flashy colors, you won’t be able to go further until you stop and watch. Looking at Joachim’s artwork you can feel how much fun he had making it.
Lamp and paintings from Joachim Oettli in Riedikon
He talked with passion about the collection he is preparing for next year, the one which will go to Las-Vegas and New York. He is impatient and proud about these new upcoming and exciting events and shows me some pictures on his I-phone. What will he show there? Huge canvases on Plexiglas in two dimensions like the Marilyn Monroe cut in 4 pieces or the young Elvis Presley.
Beginning of December, Joachim Oettli will have a Vernissage in his Gallery Oettli Arts in Riedikon.
Please click here for more about his work.
To be continued next week….
