With a focus this Winter Group Show on Ray Caesar, the startling Canadian artist, explorer of the psyche and savior of innocence.
Ray Caesar has become a worldwide phenomenon in recent years. His work is collected by the Hearst Family, Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy, Madonna, the Bristol Museum, and his work has been selected by Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim, New York.
Caesar's fascinating alienating worlds cannot be separated from his English, sometimes violent childhood. His experiences while working - for 20 years - at the Children's Hospital in Toronto underpin his view of 'good and evil', which is reflected in many of his works.
This central theme, the innocence and its downside, plays a major role in the Winter group show at KochxBos.
Caesar is the pioneering artist in digital technology. He uses the 3D animation program Maya, in which models are made for animation films and computer games. The elaboration of the images and details goes beyond the 2D world that we see. A virtual world where Caesar can walk around, his figures can be seen from all sides and personal letters or treasures are kept in drawers, and can also be opened. The works in the gallery can best be described as photographs of this fascinating and beautifully complex world. Caesar returns to the roots of one of his previous great successes.
The Winter Exhibition will also feature works by Ciou (FR), Claire Partington (UK), Zoé Byland (CH), Naoto Hattori and Meryl Donoghue (UK).
Biography
Ray Caesar (53) was born and raised in South London, near Brixton. He currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Caesar's childhood and relationship with his family greatly influenced his development and artistic formation. His later work at a children's hospital in Toronto has also left its mark. Fantasy, human cruelty and disguise are therefore recurring themes.
After emigrating to Canada, Ray Caesar works at the Children's Hospital in Toronto for 17 years. Caesar faces child abuse, animal testing and reconstructive surgery.
"I've learned that the human hand can be cruel, but also that a hand can perform heart surgery, write a check for a new hospital wing, or wipe a child's tear."
After his job at the hospital, Ray Caesar works as a digital animator at GVFX in Toronto. Here he discovers the origin of the technique he now uses to create his works. Using 3D technology, he builds digital models with invisible skeletons and anatomical joints. Then he 'dresses' them with fabrics and textures. By scanning his own skin and incorporating it into his images, his paintings become lifelike.
In the work of Ray Caesar we see influences from classical European art. He himself mentions Robert Campin, Jan Van Eyk, Boucher, Chardin and Gainsborough. But modern image m