For Art Rotterdam 2020, DMW and Base-Alpha are joining forces to bring a duo show with two Antwerp based female artists in a shared booth. Individually, Denitsa Todorova and Nadia Naveau each already have a strong track record of presentations and exhibitions at national and international art fairs. The shared booth at Art Rotterdam allows for a natural dialogue between the works of Nadia and Denitsa.
The presentation at Art Rotterdam will be comprised of a composite installation of sculptures by Nadia Naveau and drawings by Denitsa Todorova. Nadia will show a series of works that were exhibited previously at Museum Dhondt – Dhaenens. Conversely, Denitsa will realise a new project that further builds upon her work in the drawing technique known as sgraffito, an Eastern European way of drawing that lies close to the roots of the artist.
Naveau makes sculptural collages with loose elements that overlap with each other and converge in a seemingly haphazard fashion. This is mirrored in and reinforced by the collage technique employed by Denitsa, where the bottom layer of a drawing is dismantled through intentional destruction to create new images. Naveau’s images interact strongly with the space of the booth and its direct environment, whereas the drawings of Denitsa rather tell a story that slowly wishes to break out of the framework in which it finds itself. As such, the confluence of and tension between the presentation of the works by these two artists will balance between thoughtfulness and emotion, between artistic freedom and knowledge of art history.
Nadia Naveau (BE, 1975), lives and works in Antwerp (BE) and Saint Bonnet Tronçais (FR).
The sculptor Nadia Naveau experiments with forms, materials and the use of colour. She is always on the move. In her sculptures, she combines inspiration from various contexts, modelling them into a singular, idiosyncratic iconography. Naveau creates life-sized sculptures, as well as very small ones, and always in clay first. Later, she realises her images in an array of different materials: plaster, ceramics, polyester, concrete or plastic.
In her oeuvre, Nadia Naveau seamlessly unites forms and iconographies from previous periods with those of contemporary society. Anything can become a source of inspiration to her. Every image has its own story. Her material, the use of colour and the formal language is impressively expressive. She does not recognise any boundaries between figuration and abstraction, the baroque and the restrained, the contemporary and the classical, and she mixes all these categories in her works.
Naveau’s images never consist of just one form; they are always composed of different forms and/or materials. Her work is multifaceted and polyphonous. (Sofie Vermeiren)
Denitsa Todorova (BG, 1984), lives and works in Antwerp (BE) and Plovdiv (BG)
The drawings of Denitsa Todorova are like paintings made up of different layers. While a painter may try to overwhelm one layer with the other, Denitsa Todorova ensures that her graphite layers mainly reveal. The artist seems to sweep clean a painted window to let more and more light into the space of the viewer, thereby making her drawing an access point to sunlight. What Denitsa Todorova effectively portrays is both abstract and emotional. No concrete feelings, but a subjective investigation into the meaning of concepts such as "endlessness" or metaphysical queries are the inspiration for her drawings.
Both the bearing material and the bottom layer with subsequent modifications on top of it contain traces of which we do not know the origin. Small shapes or lines are clearly the result of certain objects or textures that have interfered with the creative process. It is precisely through these hermetic references that each drawing can create a completely new universe. A universe that will lead a life of its own for every viewer. After all, the compositions of Denitsa consciously leave room for placing our own emphasis – or yet none at all. (Ilse Roosens)