About the Exhibitors of Rhy Art Salon Basel 2016
Abracheva (Vaud, Switzerland)
The sculptures (assemblages) from Swiss-French artist Mariana Abracheva are designed in 3D. The sculptures are made of everyday objects as well as of objects from pop and consumer culture. The objects used create a statement on their own as well as a whole. Arranged in an unusual way they astonish the viewer from every perspective creating a new form.
Roland Ammann (Affoltern, Switzerland)
The neon installations of Swiss light installation designer Roland Ammann are constantly stir. At this year's Rhy Art Salon Ammann presents his latest series of works.
Chervenata tochka gallery (Sofia, Bulgaria)
"Chervenata tochka" is Bulgarian for Red Dot. This is the name of a gallery in Sofia presenting contemporary artists from Bulgaria as well as international acts. Red Dot is proud to present two of its artists: Daniel Mirchev and Elaine Jeffrey. During 2015 both of them had successful solo exhibitions at Chervenata Tochka. Both artists possess a refined sense for space and design, their works being both sophisticated and modern.
Elaine Jeffrey is a Scottish photographer currently living in Sofia. In the early 80's, while travelling in America, Jeffrey started to document her new home with pictures made with a borrowed camera. Photography quickly became her preferred method for portraying and expressing both environment and emotional stages. On returning to Scotland Jeffrey studied Photographic Art at Napier University in Edinburgh. She exhibits in solo and group shows and her works are found in many private collections across Europe and America. Elaine Jeffrey has gone through many artistic transitions. From early stages of documentary-style she has gone full circle (over a three-decade period) to abstract minimalism. Her latest body of work "The language of Light" consists of large abstract pieces expressing elements of minimalism and using bold colours. With a digital camera these images have been created in Jeffrey's studio where she sets up tableaux-like scenarios with found objects and daily props. Her colour-narratives contain and symbolise untold stories – secret worlds. There is no trace of what, when or where Jeffrey has created these images. They clarify the process of reduction bringing down things back to core elements. This is something which Jeffrey views as part of maturing as a person and an artist.
Daniel Mirchev is a Bulgarian sculptor with numerous group and solo exhibitions. He went through large scale of professional experience in design, decorating scenes and painting. He uses mainly wood although other techniques are also part of his portfolio. Graduated from a special wood carving art college in Bulgaria, Daniel's artistic life is dedicated to transforming the traditional Bulgarian fairy-tails into contemporary stories. Woodcarving seen as a game between light and shadows, Daniel Mirchev continues Elaine Jeffrey's artistic line adding dimension. The sculptures of Daniel Mirchev explore the plastic relationship between the hidden darkness and the revealed beauty, featuring his recent researches of the objective forms. His plastic artworks do not just occupy space, but also represent internal time-space. They invite visitors to think of art more as a hidden image or object to be discovered, but also as a personal experience revealed through the game of light and darkness.
Barbara Egin (Freiburg, Germany)
A significant part of Barbara Egin's work explores representations of women. The female protagonists deal with confidence and insecurity, are strong and vulnerable at the same time. The portrayed women are young, old, childish, indeed simply human - they reflect the psychological and biological dimensions of femininity in all its varieties. In the recent paintings of Barbara Egin you encounter two worlds colliding - human status objects and natural creatures, each posing questions of wealth and worthless/senses, for power in and about life. The object and the living opposite harmonize perfectly and compositionally in the image. The paintings reflect our zeitgeist without judging and thus create different interpretation rooms.
Mirjam Gasser (Bern, Switzerland)
Born in Bern, Miriam Gasser completed her artistic training in Florence, Turin and Bern. Since 1998 she has worked successfully as a freelance artist in Bern. Miriam Gasser gets the inspiration for her paintings and sculptures by travelling around the world.
Lolo Loren (Ibiza, Spain)
Lolo Loren was born in Rotterdam. Via Den Hague, Paris and Amsterdam Lolo lives in Ibiza since 2006. Inspired by the island, the light, the objectivity of the people, the absolute tranquillity versus the bohemian party scene, she found her place to live and to paint. When Lolo Loren finishes a painting the story is made about that painting, when you look closely you will discover hidden faces or items or things to see which are not seen or seen differently by others, suddenly appearing without purpose. A couple of years ago Lolo started to use a lot of mixed materials like cement, clay, sand, raw pigments and extra pieces of canvas, Arabic gum etc. This brings a three-dimensional look and feel to her works and the colours become more vibrant. From painting came photography. Her interaction with the camera position and her feelings in that moment determine the final image. Lolo Loren's only goal is that the images let the contemplator explore their own thoughts and desires, sometimes mysterious, or sensual.
Amandine Goubet (Mouvaux, France)
Amandine Goubet paints nature in a hyper-realistic manner. She needs to be anchored in the reality of nature and the environment, where ecology has an increasing sense in our society. Each of her paintings transcribes a particular universe, a landscape which is transmitted to the audience by emotion. The goal of her work is to give a hyper-realistic appearance by distance and approaching the gross side of the oil painting, which is formed by a knife building up layers and thickness. Her favorite subjects are organic, reflections as well as the play of light on water. Light is important, the artist creates it coming from within the canvas and not artificially from the outside.
Galerie zum Harnisch (Allschwil, Switzerland)
For the second time at Rhy Art Salon Basel Galerie zum Harnisch presents an interesting selection of sculptures, collages, photographs and paintings from professional artists. Artworks by Brigitta Andermatt, Chris Delgado, Trudi Demenga, Oliver Fauser, Christoph Luckeneder, Markus Mesmer and Ed Schumacher will be shown. Steel sculptures by Niklaus Fichtel will be exhibited. The artist participated on art objects for Jean Mauboules, Jean Tinguely and Bernhard Luginbühl.
Nadia Heitmar (Grüt / Gossau ZH, Switzerland)
Nadia Heitmar presents works from her current series. Her striking acrylic works are characterized by their bold colour and spatial presence. Structures and haptics convey depth and often associations with scenic observations of nature. No viewer can escape the impact of these brilliant image compositions. Challenging the mind her images can be rarely classified though. Leaving space for interpretation the artist allows the contemplator to create their own impression being cautious about giving specifications. The Swiss artist with Italian roots always manages to find her own visual language to create self-contained compositions that are unparalleled. Heitmar's oeuvre is marked by many exhibitions and fairs, both national and international. The artist's works impress through their precise imagery, through diverse aspects of artistic expression as well as through an impressive choice of colour and the skilful use of material.Nadia Heitmar's body of work is spontaneous, intuitive and expresses a bold and mysterious power.
AINO / Nadezhda Kashina (Heidelberg, Germany)
AINO, born in 1985, studied architecture in Moscow and Karlsruhe with focus on museum and exhibition concepts especially in the visual arts. Since 2015 she has worked as a freelance artist in Heidelberg and Berlin. Aino had numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, her works can be found in many collections.
Gabriele Kulstrunk (Baden, Switzerland)
Gabriele Kulstrunk lives and works in Switzerland and showed her extensive work already in numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad like at the Prefectural Art Museum Hiroshima (2007), the Art Museum Fukuoka (2007), in the Onishi Gallery NY 2015/2016. Gabriele Kulstrunks work can be characterized by the nature of people and her self-developed own techniques.
Elena Lagun (Feusisberg, Switzerland)
Elena Lagun was born in Belarus. She lives and works in Switzerland since 2004. After graduating from International School of Art and Design (Moscow), she studies at the ZHDK and the SKDZ in Zurich and continues her artistic career with pastel drawing and oil painting. Recently Elena Lagun is working with encaustic, "hot wax painting". Encaustic has a much longer tradition and was notably used in the Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt around 100 – 300 AD. This technique lets the artist bring more life and emotional energy into her pictures.
Daniel Laufer (Basel, Switzerland)
Daniel Laufer works on the theme of human being. The focus is on three themes with correspondingly different techniques: stamps, large portraits and oversized body images.
Minjoo Lee by Samsim Art (Seoul, South Korea)
Many prestigious Korean artists belong to Samsim art and have participated in numerous art fairs and invitational exhibitions around the world. The artistic focus consists in modernity acquired through subjective interpretation and the adaptation of Korean aesthetics and eastern Asian philosophy.
Minjoo Lee is one of the well-known south Korean artists, she participated in more than 400 group exhibitions around the world. Her work is represented in numerous museums and collections worldwide. Her art is about the division of Korea, issues such as life and death, war and peace. The works of Minjoo Lee are rooted in Korean Tradition with 5000 years of art history. Koreans have been inspired by the nature and traditional East Asian philosophies including Confucian philosophy, Lao philosophy. In the paintings of MinjooLee, you may see Confucianism, shamanism, Buddhism and even Christianity. In fact, various contemporary spirits have bloomed from the same stem. With the painful 'sense of belongings to the world', Minjoo Lee has kept representing in her painting the agonizing existential situation between the intensive earth and the remote cosmos. For her, the act of painting is an attempt to reach to the promised plenitude. The power that supports the work of Minjoo Lee comes from her ability to introduce the forms in resonance from her ability to give birth to the forms - the lines, colour and the situations in which they position themselves with a complex play of reflection and echo.
Vronka / Veronica Liechti (Köniz, Switzerland)
Vronka is a Swiss-American artist who has lived in Switzerland nearly half of her life. She studied at the School of Fine Arts, Berne. Her paintings have been exhibited since 2001 and have met with excellent response by the public. Vronka's artwork can best be described as conceptual abstract with whimsical elements and an emphasis on colour. Her work is driven by a fascination of the influence of colours, their conversations with each other, and their hidden meanings. Her current concentration is on circular forms with the theme 'Circles of Life': In each painting, some form of a circle has been incorporated to represent an aspect of life. For Vronka, circles symbolize concentrations of completeness and unity which also include an embracing of imperfections as part of our ideal whole. With this concept in mind, the artist set about painting representative circular artworks that include colour saturation and express a story.
Susan Mains Gallery (St. George's, Grenada)
The Susan Mains Gallery has been a leader in the island of Grenada in the Southern Caribbean for the promotion of Contemporary Art from within the Caribbean. Grenada was represented at the Venice Biennale in a National Pavilion for the first time in 2015, with Susan Mains as the Curator. In 2017 she will be the Commissioner of the Grenada Pavilion. With a long history of international exhibition, the gallery gives direct access for collectors to artists who create in the synthesis of cultures that makes up the Caribbean spirit.
Statement for the installation "Sea Lungs" from the represented artist Asher Mains:
"As someone who has grown up in the island environment, particularly Grenada, it is apparent how crucial our connection to the sea is. Whether the sea is feeding us or attracting visitors, we are in constant dialogue with and our health and well-being is in constant relation to the sea. The Sea Fans (Gorgonians) I use in my work are coral-like organisms that grow from the reef. When they die, they detach and wash up on the beach. I use them in my work because of the visual reference they make to a human cardio-vascular system. In a real sense, the washing up of these 'organs' represents not only the dying of the Caribbean reefs but also a reminder that our own life-force can be found in the sea. All of the materials used in this installation were sourced locally in Grenada. It is important to me to use materials that anyone could use in the local setting and not distance myself through my medium. The substrate is nylon that is used in sail making; sailing being a vital element to the local economy. The sea fans were found on local beaches and the spray paint was bought locally. The light used in the installation is to create the effect of the sea fans as an 'organ' while also emulating the effect of diffused light in water. The process I use for creating the pieces is similar to techniques used by street artists. I had taken photos of someone who modelled for me, then reduced the photos to stencil templates. I cut two layers of stencils for each piece and then applied spray paint onto the stencils through a sea fan, giving the textured appearance. I hung the installation in a way of mimicking the feeling of swimming around a reef. The pieces can be viewed from every angle and even walked through. The stretcher frame without nylon and the remnants of a sea fan refers to the death of the reefs and the gazes of the various faces react to it. The intent is to anthropomorphize the reefs' reaction to its own demise."
Monomoka Art Gallery (Wroclaw / Poland)
The twin sisters, Monika Gwiazdowska and Katarzyna Gwiazdowska, born 1970 are both educated and experienced architects. Some years ago they became fascinated with traditional techniques of manual artisanry, like crocheting, and subsequently set off on their unique creative journey. Working the most basic tools and materials, namely a crochet hook and yarn, the artists are able to create stunning sculptural forms made of countless crocheted stitches. The challenge they wanted to face when initiating their new collection was endowing matter with live emotions.
Mylona Gallery (Grandvaux, Switzerland)
Mylona Gallery presents modern and contemporary art works by international artists Wanda Pratschke and Yiorgos Angelopoulos. Their combined works showcase the juxtaposing of microscopic two dimensional views of life up to the macroscopic three dimensional views of form.
Wanda Pratschke represents the visual metaphor in the form of a worshipper, an adorer. This is the impression or feeling implored upon oneself when in the presence of her art studio. For this is where the inundated art work is created, concentrated on the human body as a volume in space, with depth and dedication, not glorified as a monument but seizing and capturing the many facets of physicality. Modelled, built, worked and reworked in plaster and finally cast in bronze; the birth of the sculpture. Sketches on paper and colour contours starts the creative process from the living model to the figures that are tectonically meditative in spatial form. Her main interest is primarily the female body, they give her speech and familiarity, they are structurally engineered and powerfully designed.
The works of Yiorgos Angelopoulos have a "zooming" trend, based on the idea that in order to understand the enormously whole, we need the theoretical and experimental findings of the research on the enormously small, accompanied by an artistic attempt to harness and rationalize them. The almost spherical microcosms, convert into cores that emit light, into hearts of a natural and vital energy, magic openings to escape into the subconscious or the unconscious, towards a more conscious look to the outside. The initial shape is juxtaposed to new compositions that emanate from the artistic processing and recomposition of the various configurations of the form, resulting into a single outcome. The material generates a new relationship of proportion and harmony. With a playful mood the works end up to a kind of colour psychoanalysis by transforming the peculiar, abstract patterns and creating explosions of energy in the centre of each composition, gradually developing the idea of dialogue, with painting techniques that coexist with the perfect harmony between liquid and condensed form.
Jean-François Réveillard aka JfR (Engelberg, Switzerland)
JfR is a Swiss artist born in Paris. He finds his inspiration in the Swiss mountains and during travels around the world. His painting technique is mainly inspired by Heidegger and his famous concept "Being and time" and Japanese Calligraphy as well. Besides painting, the Artist is strongly involved in the digital media, video art, 3d printing and virtual worlds. He likes to define himself as "Cross Media Picture Maker". He applies the contemporary art as a mirror, reflecting and spreading cultural ideas over the huge networks around the world.
About "Time and particles", a video art- and 3Dprint-installation by JfR:
The particles, consisting of all materials, are precious stones, jewels, vibratory pigments closely related to time and universe. Highlighted in the Large Hadron Collider, these discoveries turn upside down our vision of the world and our origin, especially the space/time in which we live. These gems of the universe are represented in a cabinet of curiosity, by sculptures realized in a dreamlike poetic manner with three dimensional printings, enhancing their non-persistence and accentuating their mysteries. The current great discoveries in the world of matter carry with them big questions like information disappearing forever into black holes, as Hawking suggests, or more simply about the time consistency itself, which is our own, the one of our life. Nature is the expression of the most visible and observable time, one of the main valuable assets, the one that puts us in the persistence of our lives lost in technological narcosis. We must continually protect this nature, an integral part of our being, the natural time belongs to us, existing in each tiny part of the universe with us, or without us. This timeline is represented through observation and digital scenes sets in videos, some filmed live within nature, where introspection helps to visualize, immersing in a universal breathing stream, blocking and stopping the artificial time of technology. To search the right balance of these constituents: time, nature, and bring the technology to become tool of expression.
Marie-Noëlle Ronayette (Forcalquier, France)
Franco-Swiss artist, Marie-Noêlle Ronayette works in Provence and near Zurich. She is represented in galleries in France and the Netherlands. In 2014 she participated, among others, in the French Art Tour of Shanghai, an exhibition in Amsterdam at the French Institute and the Art Fair in Zurich. Her work was rewarded with a silver medal at the Carrousel du Louvre and a gold medal in Cannes. Marie-Noëlle Ronayette creates her sculptures from the earth or wax before melting the bronze. Her work revolves around the representation of the human being but in a very personal style. Shapes are stretched, torn sometimes. Patina enhances the movement of matter by revealing golden bronze shine. Alone or in groups this characters listen, watch, scan the world. Recently the artist focused her work on wall sculptures of great magnitude. Like real pictures, and a humanity born, questioning the viewer's gaze.