Paintings gaze quizzically at the viewer; sculptures study the paintings.
The idea for the current exhibition came when taking a closer look at the work of Roy Mordechay* and Frans Roermond**. One thing the two artists have in common in that they are both deeply influenced by artworks well beyond their immediate purview. In Mordechay’s case it is art objects of antiquity, both within his native Israel and those with historical significance for the country. For Roermond it is the highly charged Melanesian cult figures that he studied in-depth over a long period. The key interest in both cases is in exploring the cultural history of humankind, the roots of our aesthetic and creative capabilities and the related cultural environments.
Mordechay’s aquarelles are powerful, the totem-like heads and faces take on a life of their own as a tribe of intense, emotional characters. They are dark without being sinister, drawing the viewer in with an almost magical allure. They thus correspond well with the paintings of Frans Roermond, works mainly from 2014 that conclude a phase in which he investigated the extra-historical nature of the cultures of Papua New Guinea: masks as cultic objects; a house for men as a place of refuge; a fountain as the axis mundi.
All of this is bolstered by the presence of African and Oceanic sculptures with their enigmatic inner life, which they will reveal to the extent that one is able to approach them. At the very least they emit a palpable energy and concentration, creating a vibration that subtly permeates the entire space.
For works on loan we offer our sincere thanks to the collectors Dr. Hartmut and Dr. Maria Kraft, Susanne Hortig and Reinhold Buckenmayer.
*Roy Mordechay (born in 1976 in Haifa, Israel) studied from 1999 to 2002 at Avni Institut of Art and Design in Tel Aviv. He has been the recipient of many stipends, grants and awards, including the Israel Young Artist Prize, Ministry of Culture, the Israel Lottery Council for Culture and Art, and, in 2014, a grant from the Lepsien Art Foundation, which took him to Düsseldorf where he currently lives and works.
** Frans Roermond (born in 1967 as Franz van der Grinten) left his art studies at the HdK Berlin to pursue his own eclectic path of further education, including vocational training as a taxidermist, an ongoing exploration of Super8 film and photography and the practice of drawing and painting. He later exhibited in the framework of projects, in solo shows and group exhibitions with artist friends, activities that led to the establishment, in 1997, of a project space in the Ewaldistraße in Cologne. This would go on to become the Van der Grinten Galerie of today. It wasn’t until 2014 that van der Grinten resumed his own artistic production under the name Frans Roermond.
Opening
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