Duo exhibition with works by Suzana Brborovic and Peter Cvik at Equrna Gallery in Ljubljana.
This Appearance In The Air Is Called Mirage
Artists: Suzana Brborović, Peter Cvik
4 November - 8 December, 2021
Equrna Gallery, Ljubljana
Abstract imagism is formed by a combination of landscape and abstract elements in an open, undefined space, in the point where the look onto the land and the sky meet. The paintings are colourful translucent membranes in which illusionistic mirages of personal memory and digital imagery are caught, but various light grounds and the constructions caught within them appear to be »analogue«, tactile, personal. They are not managed by an algorithm, but by a Conscious individual.
Suzana Brborović
The artist, Suzana Brborović produced the two exhibited series of paintings last year. She was exploring the topics that, in the paintings, interlace and mutually contribute to each other. The basic guideline in all the pictures was to observe the sky and the phenomena that occur and change daily, as well as what relations and feelings they evoke in people. The artist was also interested in how we experience this through technology, or a digital prism, and how it could be depicted on canvas. The intertwining and collaging of different clouds and sunsets with the remnants or inceptions of technological constructions are shown primarily in colour fields of heavy impasto of varying intensity, in contrast with the engraved thin lines of structures. Our gaze in the sky will become increasingly more obscured by digital infrastructure that we, in the future, will not be able to overlook. Our sky/space is already overflown by thousands (and their number is increasing) of new Internet satellites, polluting the space and disabling its exploration. Our cities, towns, villages and roads will become packed and saturated with receivers and emitters. Sunsets have, due to fast digitalization, become only the matter of photographs with corny comments on Instagram. The author's works are her reflection on the future of the look upwards – where organic shapes meet technical lines, where satellites, antennas, and domes are playing with the generation and directing of clouds. Where the idea about our own creation of the sky is more than a mere futuristic madness. Her paintings are only a part of her thought process, the so-called abstract playing-the-odds of personal dystopian views.
Peter Cvik
The artist made this series during his artist-in-residence project at the Telegraph in Olomouc, Czech Republic (Robert Runtak Collection). It is a new, fresh step, a new direction after he has finished an extensive series of more than 50 works entitled Things Go Smoother When I Lose Control. The new cycle is based on reduction. He sourced from his memories, however, primarily dealing only with the things that he was able to remember without any use of sketches or photos. This particular series of paintings is based on openness, and offers a wide scope for the viewer's interpretation. The author says: „I paint what I paint, you see what you see.“ It is actually a compound of landscape and abstract elements that have been, in varying layers, input in the picture plane. The shapes are becoming increasingly more abstract as his intention was to deal with the air and a feeling of open, undefined space. The pictures do not strictly refer to particular places in the city of Olomouc; moreso they reflect the author's experience of a specific area, and his personal stories. The basis of his exploration are his memories, so when he fails to remember something, he works with unconscious forms which shows in his painting as a freedom of gesture, as the painting fragment of things, or as a creative invention. This particular series of paintings is a response to the contemporary digital era and its aesthetics, as he does not employ any technologically generated images.
