In occasion of Art Rotterdam 2021, Lumen Travo is pleased to showcase at booth 87 the works of five artists close to the gallery: Matea Bakula (NL), Daniel de Paula (BR), Rini Hurkmans (NL), Monali Meher (IN) and Thierry Oussou (BE).
Matea Bakula (1990, Sarajevo) presents two works made on the occasion of her last show at Lumen Travo Gallery (2019). Both these sculptures show the visual investigation Bakula has been developing by studying the property of humble materials such as the corrugated cardboard.
In her creating process Bakula is looking beyond the aesthetics of the material she is using. She almost works like a chemist or a physicist that is trying to find the answers of the material’s secrets.
Brazilian artist and researcher Daniel de Paula (1987, Boston), who currently lives and works between Amsterdam and São Paulo, brings a series of objects and works that give continuation to his ongoing investigations towards infrastructure and the production of geographical space understood as the reproduction of violent practices that are fundamental to capitalist production. Through a variety of sculptural and conceptual strategies the artist proposes, not only a critical reflection of the physical structures that surround us, but also of the agency and invisible phenomena they conceal.
Rini Hurkmans (1954, NL) presents a work she created during her working period as Artist in Residence at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) and that she exhibited at Lumen Travo gallery as part of her recent solo show “Pietà, a Reconsideration of the Gesture”. The Pietà is a religious image of a mother with her dead son on her lap. It is an icon that depicts general emotions of human suffering in which loss, love, and grief come together and therefore the theme extends beyond the Christian belief. Her research into the press photo of the moment just after Michelangelo's Pietà was attacked in 1972 serves as the starting point for her new work that also builds upon earlier work inspired by this photo since she acquired it in 1992.
Visual artist and performer Monali Meher (1969, India) exhibits a mix media series of works on paper, which reflect the mood of present times, particularly in light of the horrific situation back in her motherland, India, which has been incredibly affected by the current pandemic.
The series show a combination of light, dark & gloomy facts of life, skilfully juxtaposed in order to create a mosaic of antithesis: birth and death, happiness and sadness, entanglement of void and creative vigour.
Thierry Oussou (1988, Benin) paints exclusively on black paper and favours large-scale formats. The works showcase his distinctively gestural style with drips, scratches, splatters and calligraphic marks. Distorted figures, faces, objects and symbols float freely against the dark background of the paper.
Some of the works presented here were inspired by the lives of Beninese men and women working in the cotton plantations. For this ongoing project, Oussou developed a multi-layered visual investigation, which addresses the cotton plantations in Benin, his motherland, and the impact they have on the economic rise of the country.
Come and visit us at booth 87!