Andrei Roiter - Roiter’s Spheres
As the title suggests, Roiter’s Spheres revolves around the theme of spheres, three-dimensional round shapes and mostly in the form of transparent bubbles. While bubbles are a relatively new subject for Roiter, the spherical form has actually been present throughout his oeuvre. The earliest appearance was in the 1990s when he made a series of paintings and objects featuring potatoes. Later, from 2010 on, spheres reappeared in the form of globes in paintings, objects and sculptures. These days bubbles occupy his canvas to express not so much objects, but rather a ghosty and mysterious presence in our midst. Evoking the range of associations the bubble has accumulated throughout history, the paintings in this show speak to themes of the ephemerality of life, the freedom of the imagination, isolation or transcendence. One of these recent bubble paintings was first presented at Art Rotterdam 2024, and another is now part of the permanent collection on display at the Dordrecht Museum.
Recalling Dutch or Spanish still life paintings from the 17th century or later works by Manet and Morandi, Roiter’s compositions often place bubbles amongst objects in balanced constructions, if not simply floating in the atmosphere. Like a vanitas painting that reminds viewers of the constant proximity of death, Roiter rests (sometimes squeezes) his bubbles on crowded bookshelves, creating an unnerving (or harmonious) juxtaposition between the materiality of books against the insubstantiality of the bubble. One wonders if Roiter is poetically suggesting that our intellectual heritage, preserved and handed down throughout civilisation in the form of books, competes with the spectre of our inevitable extinction. Or if they are mutually reinforcing, helping us to appreciate this fleeting moment.
It’s impossible not to notice that the works in this show typify the contradictions that are always present in Andrei Roiter’s works: sensually dreamy yet intellectual and self-ironic; ethereal and atmospheric yet enigmatic and resonant with uncertain open-endedness.