Especially for the gallery weekend, everyone can pick up a free poster and magazine about Ray Caesar and the gallery, ... and of course there are bubbles & bites.
Welcome!
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Caesar can safely be called the founder of digital art. He has been creating his work in Maya 3D since 2001.
In the new exhibition we see Caesar's work as we are used to; intriguing images with a magical, fairytale atmosphere, always meaningful and intelligent with a corresponding layered story. Koch en Bos shows seven completely new works, in addition to more well-known works.
In 2005, the gallery in Amsterdam opened its doors with a solo show by British artist Ray Caesar, who lives in Canada. Since then, Koch en Bos has been the European representative of the popular Caesar and enjoys working with him.
In his work he incorporates his own experiences from the past and the present. He strikingly depicts his inner world, the subconscious and thinking. The artworks are created in Maya, a 3D modeling software program.
- Brilliant inner worlds
Ray Caesar is considered one of the most important representatives of pop surrealism, a movement that emerged around Los Angeles in the late 1970s. He gives a personal interpretation to the movement by placing his figures in a Victorian and Rococo-like atmosphere with fairytale elements. Caesar is original, his mind is brilliant and he has the talent to reveal his inner world in words and certainly in pictures.
- Children's Hospital
Caesar often has visions, he dreams consciously and visualizes feelings and emotions from lucid dreams, which are difficult to put into words. A recurring theme in his dreams is the children's hospital where he worked as a photographer from 1980 to 1997. His dreams feel like a deeper part of himself. He gains the unconscious experiences in that dream state, when he floats in the world between sleep and reality. In this way he depicts the subconscious of human existence.
Caesar's work refers to human experiences in life, he processes his own experiences and regularly refers to Greek myths.
- The 'transgender' escape route
In all Ray Caesar's work we see an angelic, white figure, with red lips, often dressed in baroque style and surrounded by special objects. The figure is his archetype, in which he incorporates the collective subconscious of man. They represent the balance between the masculine and feminine and spiritual growth.
As a boy, Caesar often put on clothes from his mother and sisters and painted his lips red. He looked older in his mother's baroque mirror and it was an attempt to escape his life. Caesar drew to dissociate from the mental image or memory of bad experiences. The drawings allowed the memories to be safely stored away and it helped to get the disturbing emotional impact out of his mind.
- Insect and tentacle metaphors
Insects are recurring in many of his works, as can also be seen in the new work 'Charon'. The insects are often a metaphor for the unconscious thoughts that permeate us and the invisible life around us. Like the flies and spiders in your house and the ants in your garden. 'Cities of life behind the wall of your living room' and 'Cities of thoughts and memories in your subconscious'.
Due to a dissociative identity disorder, Caesar often loses track of time. He may be lost in the past or another life, hours may pass before something snaps him out of a deep daydream. Caesar lives in the past, present and future and sees time as a liquid, soft illusion. The clock as seen in the work 'Time Enough' refers to this.
In the work 'Demimonde' we see limbs that change into tentacles, an extension of hands or feet. This refers to the connection with the earth and the heavenly and also to the arthritis deformed feet of Caesars' father.
Things are not always what they seem, even under clothing there is a hidden body. Anyway, they are all completely natural biological variations.
The intriguing work of Ray Caesar can be seen in various museums worldwide, and soon again in Amsterdam.