HackelBury Fine Art, 4th November 2021 – 22nd January 2022
HackelBury Fine Art, London is pleased to present: Palimpsest, a solo exhibition of new work by Coral Woodbury, and her first solo exhibition in the UK and Europe, in which her allegiance to people’s stories and making the invisible visible permeate three bodies of work. In Revised Edition the artist redraws the history of art from a feminist perspective; in Palimpsest she illuminates the transformative power of time and life experience and in the In Place series she employs the language of colour as a record of cross-cultural travel. The title of the exhibition Palimpsest reflects this idea of a journey through time, life and place.
Books are a recurring theme in Woodbury’s work. Their structure becomes a composition with which to work, providing “a tension between text and image”. Her fascination with palimpsests (ancient parchment manuscripts which were reused over centuries) lies in the connection of humans across time – through their thoughts and their hands. For Woodbury a book is a metaphor and she finds parallels between body and book, the spine that binds it and holds it together. The vellum and the skin, what is held inside and the covering.
A Remarkably Nasty Woman, 2021
Broken Spine V, 2021
Coral Woodbury
Coral Woodbury (b. 1971) critically reinterprets Western artistic heritage from a feminist perspective, bringing overdue focus and reverence to the long line of women artists who worked without recognition or enduring respect.
Coral’s most recent project Revised Edition focuses on Janson‘s History of Art. First published in 1962, the book quickly became a referential text on art history, for generations shaping the Western canon and understanding of art. Its influence as a survey textbook should however have been called into question as the text did not mention any female artists until 1986. The more recent editions of the book are still heavily male-dominated, failing to recognise the legacy and importance of women artists.
With Revised Edition, Coral inks portraits of women artists over images from the well-known canon. Using material culture which is available to her – either photographs or self-portraits of the women – Coral makes visible those who are obscured from history. She describes herself as a “historian, gazing backward, and as an artist, creating anew” whose works “are a way to heal the injustices and omissions of art history”. Recognising that women were vital contributors to art history and yet excluded from it both in their own and subsequent times, Coral reclaims space for them. Bringing women together across time and place, she re-recasts and re-crafts the story of art.
“What has even been deemed art at all, all of art history was defined and determined by men” explains Coral. As women were for centuries excluded from art institutions and forbidden to perform what was considered essential artistic training, their creative input was often demoted to the areas of art considered as minor as well as domestic decorative crafts. Coral’s inclusion in the Revised Edition of portraits of women artists who were omitted from the realm of High Art, makes a stand against male.
Established in 1998, the London gallery in Launceston Place is committed to nurturing long-term relationships with both artists and clients. It continues to evolve and progress through an expanding program of gallery exhibitions, museum projects and publishing ventures.
The small group of artists with whom HackelBury work, represent a diversity of practice, pushing the boundaries of various media. The work and practice of these artists encompasses the worlds of photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture and performance. Each artist, whether emerging or established, creates work defined by a depth of thought and breadth and consistency of approach.
Even nowadays, the limits of art and knowledge are questioned, and discoveries enrich the “art of knowledge” even more in the face of the complexity of understanding the human being. The fact is that, by classifying and organizing it throughout history, knowledge, in and of itself, is becoming increasingly complex in its foundations, analysis, and conclusions. We, therefore, have to ask ourselves: How do we represent this complexity through art?
From abstractions to what becomes concrete and vice-versa, among so many terms and rational answers to questions, and especially when words are insufficient to express many feelings, Dr Gindi’s art can be considered an essential component of the answer. Between illusion and reality, the representative role of art and symbolization becomes an essential part of all human existence. Between figurative and abstract motifs, the forms of its perception represent many concepts, feelings, and situations fundamental to humankind, whether through mathematics, philosophy, even theology, and in art, which is the focus here.
For example, the concept of infinity, which has its deepest roots in mathematics, is perceived and materialized in three-dimensional forms. Infinity, for Dr Gindi, is beyond rational thought, as seen in her sculpture series Immanent Conception of Infinity. Other fundamental concepts of human existence are also part of her artistic work, ranging from reason to myth and symbolism. An example is the Interstellar Dilemma sculpture, which poses the question: “Is there such existence as matter without energy, and Earth without the divine?” Her works also represent various existential situations of everyday life, among them “overcoming the conventions of life” or even “torn between purpose and avolition.” For example, the sculpture The Fateful Choice, in all its bodily expressiveness—a predominant characteristic in the artist’s mastery of human anatomy—highlights the gesture and the decisive moment of the human condition. As if that were not enough, the question “How is trust being conceived?” is added. Nevertheless, with the mastery of her perception of the world of things and humans, Dr Gindi states, “I am an illusion changer.”
The term “illusion” derives from the Latin ludere, “to play.” Well, in our contemporary society, in the world of things, we experience a reality of appearances. The concrete form of the things consolidates this reality. Appearances are the shapes and forms of how things are presented. The dynamic that is established between appearances and the reality of the environment, in the conception of aesthetics, concerns the relationship between the artifact and the space, adding time when one experiences the sensation of having the possibility of seeing something, which is then understood, and finally distinguished and defined as something concrete. This process is how Dr Gindi changes the play—the illusion.
We should note that aesthetic experience is necessary for the artwork to be perceived. This is how we feel, understand and gain knowledge of the artifact—something, which until now, existed only as a concept. Only then, in Dr Gindi’s art, is it defined as something concrete. Reality is the illusion—in the dimension of appearances—that, in the sculptor’s words, “we are all bound together by the human question of origin and destiny.” Thus, through art, we can attribute that to the universe of appearances, in the dimension of time and space, offering the illusion of transformation and change. Nevertheless, that still conditions us to ask the same existential questions as our ancestors. Finally, to know more about this sculptor and her artistic work, I present a brief interview with Dr Gindi below.
Christiane Wagner: How are science and art present in your work? I think of your medical training and your path in the arts. But not only that, of course, because the main concepts in your art show your interest in science and knowledge, while at the same time questioning its limits. What are your views?
Dr. Gindi: When sculpting, I re-create the physical and psychical aspects of humanness, as in an open-ended anamnesis—the scientific inquiry into the frailty of being is key to my practice. Then, I augment that inquiry until it gives life and empathy to the materialized characters I am forming and—most importantly—until it reflects their yearning toward infinity. Looking for answers to complex problems is a common thread in science and art—I have been experiencing both pursuits as I was trained and worked as a medical doctor prior to graduating from art school. A hypothesis about the human body in medicine and in sculpture is falsifiable if it is clear that the visualization or an evaluation disproves the hypothesis in question. Just because something worked in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work in the future. My sculptures are more like emblematic nativities eternalized in bronze rather than the eternal circulation of old fallacies. The best physicians and sculptors are those who can take all the facts and make sense of them with an unending amount of rational thinking. There is one major difference between physicians and sculptors, though—sculptors, at least in my understanding, can add an empathic, symbolic, illusionary dimension to the creative process. In my own sculpting practice, for instance, I model characters at inflection points of life, often represented by actions and events that call for unbound infinity whilst calling into question the certainty of truth. My protagonists’ struggle to find intrinsic purpose is illustrated by an often oddly striking and almost always non-scientific stylistic idiom that might produce an unusual spatial experience. I adore the ephemeral, the eerie, and the quixotically ethereal.
CW: Which works or themes represent the most significant influence on your creations? I think mainly of the expressive power of your works based on human anatomy, as well as the masterpieces of sculptors such as Camille Claudel.
DG: When starting to study sculpture, I became inspired by 19th-century French realism, but—without much remorse—I soon discovered and became inclined towards the unfettered approach of Camille Claudel. In a rather natural vein, I moved further on and unlearned what I learned before, convinced that there should be no exemplars and rules at all. While always nurturing Claudel’s sanguine temperament and exuberant sensuality, I started to develop my own sculptural language. I embrace my works pragmatically, and yes, even naively. My practice is thus empirical and very often profoundly absurd—I am not afraid of idiosyncratic escapades if they need to be. If there is a logic, maybe it is Diogenes’ logic—as each of us has to choose his own alternative to reason when living in the tub emerged in the market of truths. I believe that our mind is not just an organ for utilitarian reasoning but also a symbolic instrument for creating illusions. As humanity is cloistered, polyhedral, and unpredictable, I am searching to understand what it means to be human within that infinite realm of being.
CW: We must consider that today the innovation and art universe are much more favorable for women artists. In this sense, how do your sculptures maintain a dialogue with the present time?
DG: Well, there have been many improvements to support women artists while acknowledging gender diversity and promoting gender equality. Still, biases continue to exist. To give you an example: a striking minority of museum acquisitions around the world are artworks created by women artists. I don’t want to complain. Women can grasp and create the opportunities for which they wish and need. Further, in my case, I have not come to grips with the maze of my gender, as I don’t understand myself as female-only—I consider myself an almost androgyne being. We all are androgyne, in one way or the other—we are human. Rather than concern myself with gender ideologies, I try to explore the chokepoints of female and male infinity. It shall all be one. Nevertheless, born as a female, I endeavor to live my own identity narrative by sketching the beauty, buoyancy, and unapologetic lustiness I believe all women deserve to experience.
CW: Artistic anatomy is fundamental to figurative creative knowledge. And undoubtedly, your sculptures evidence this quality. However, besides figuration, we perceive a high-quality abstract tendency in your sculptures. In this sense, abstractionism is a way to express art without the mimetic representations of reality, offering new aesthetic experiences. So, how do you define your art in terms of figuration and abstraction in the Immanent Conception of Infinity series?
DG: Most generally, my approach toward sculpting can be described as organic as I look into the symbiosis between the individual and their outer ambit. I do not want to see the individual split apart from this very ambit, as the individual is always an organic part of it. You might thus perceive my style as figurative, but my approach and inner self are perhaps much more complex than that. I cheerfully resist categorization. My practice is based on synthesis and a conviction of holistic unity embedded in illusions, without falling into the trap of merely incarnating reality—I will always cherish the singularity of us human beings with all our veritable wounds and abstract edges. My sculptures do thus not emphasize appearance and suggest that essence is to be found in appearance. Take Immanent Conception of Infinity as a telling example: A human figure reposes on the ground to explore the fabric of time and space, having neither beginning nor end. The spectator’s gaze might encounter abstract tracks here and there whilst almost intuitively sliding into floral figuration. Figurative art can be abstract, and abstract art can be figurative—that’s, for me, the secret of organicism. And yes, I am an organic sculptor who grows in the face of illusionary reality. That’s what I am.
Dr Gindi is one of Switzerland’s most acclaimed sculptors who works with clay and bronze. On the surface, her approach might be comparable to that of Camille Claudel, but the protagonists in the enthralling sculptures she creates can only spring from her imagination—they are the progenies of symbolic and concurrently rational thinking. Resisting attunement, she scarcely has a mainstream art career—she was originally educated as a medical doctor and worked as a physician prior to graduating from the Florence Academy of Art. Intrinsic to her artistic practice is the focus on the infinite aspects of human existence that she describes as the main thing worth attaining in life.
For complete artworks, and for more information, see her website:
Welcome to Let’s Stay Tuned! — a section on Art Style Magazine‘s website that extensively covers art and culture. We feature publications that showcase shorter, creative, and concept-based pieces on arts and culture. Collaborators and journalists can submit interviews, opinion pieces, exhibitions, and events reviews. If you’re interested in collaborating, please send your pieces or press releases to our email address (editorial@artstyle.international). We will take care of contributions, select the best works, and publish them on our website.
Art Style Magazine has been working with the support and collaboration of volunteers willing to contribute to the editorial work and disseminate and promote knowledge in art and culture. Publishing in Art Style, Art & Culture International Magazine is free of charge for anyone. No article, essay, contribution processing charges, or other publication fees exist. We are motivated by disseminating knowledge and information without any financial gain. That’s why we are unable to pay for essay contributions.
Katarina Andjelkovic, PANdemia PANscape. Sequence 1. Digital graphics on mirror, 2021.Katarina Andjelkovic, PANdemia PANscape. Sequence 2. Digital graphics on mirror, 2021.Katarina Andjelkovic, PANdemia PANscape. Sequence 3. Digital graphics on mirror, 2021.Katarina Andjelkovic, PANdemia PANscape. Sequence 4. Digital graphics on mirror, 2021.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds. He was also considered a cause of sudden and unjustified fear. Being a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usually caves. Inspired by Pan’s world, the project uses narrative visual devices, fragmentation techniques and image layering, to provide an insight into ways of inhabiting the non-human space. Contrary to expectations, instead of analyzing the collective destiny of the post-pandemic world, the project deals with the possibilities for understanding architecture through the lens of metaphysics, the magical and the fantastic. A repetition of the only recognizable motifs, stairs and lights on the horizon, opens a portal between reality and fantastic underground worlds that are accessed similarly to Alice through a hole that leads to Wonderland. At the same time, the horizon itself represents the flow of time, nature, and power within the system distorted by a twisted perception of the horizontal plane. Leaving the observer’s imagination to define the scale of structures without any known referent, the author transforms the spaces of the known into the territory of abstract architectural reveries. A series of digital graphics is created in the combination of digital drawing techniques, moving image editing programs and manual drawing techniques, in several stages. Dominant gray tones are created by overlapping layers of different textures, creating rich dark tones, often black surfaces, and fragmented rhythmic transitions of coloured texture. These tones are contrasted by key areas of open white, which often represent the ground into which the imagined spaces of halls, staircases and atriums are engraved.
Lecture
As part of the exhibition, the author will give a multimedia lecture titled “Surrealism and the architecture of end space,” on August 25, 2021, at 18:30h.
Biography
Katarina Andjelkovic (1983, Yugoslavia), with a Ph.D., M.Arch.Eng., is a theorist, practicing architect, researcher and a painter. She is a high-skilled draftsman, writer and a researcher. Katarina’s research, writing and teaching is transdisciplinary and crosses architecture, visual arts and film. In Spring semester 2021, Katarina is the main instructor of the Hand-drawing course: the Face[s] of Architecture in New York City. She served as a Visiting Professor, Chair of Creative Architecture, at the University of Oklahoma U.S.A., Institute of Form Theory and History in Oslo, Institute of Urbanism and Landscape in Oslo, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture, and guest-lecturing and mentoring at Master Studies of TU Delft – Faculty of architecture and the built environment, Doctoral studies of AHO – Oslo School of architecture and design, FAUP Porto, DIA Anhalt Dessau, SMT New York, and Bachelor studies of ITU – Istanbul Technical University. She lectures internationally at conferences in architectural representation, modern aesthetics of architecture, film-philosophy, drawing research and visual culture in more than 26 countries in Europe, United Kingdom, North America and Canada. Katarina has published her research widely in international journals (Web of Science) and won numerous awards for her architecture design and urban design competitions. She is a full author of the Preliminary Architectural Design, a national project supported by the government of Serbia. She won the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce Award for Best Master Thesis defended at Universities in Serbia in all disciplines. Katarina has published two monographs; an upcoming book chapter and several journal articles with Intellect UK. Andjelkovic exhibited her artwork at 5 Solo Exhibitions and at many international architectural, fine arts and photography exhibitions, including group exhibitions at Pall Mall Gallery in London, Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, MAAT Museum in Lisbon, International Biennial of Illustration ”Golden Pen” in Belgrade, TU Delft in the Netherlands, the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade, the National Museum in Belgrade, Gallery Singidunum in Belgrade, Stepenište in Art Education Center ”Šumatovačka”, Gallery of the Central Military Club, Suluj Gallery, Pavillion Cvijeta Zuzoric of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia, and Mala Gallery of the Association of Fine Artists of Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia.
About Mala Gallery of The Association of the Artists of Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia
Mala Gallery and Singidunum Gallery of The Association of the Artists of Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia, 12 Uzun Mirkova Street and 40 Knez Mihailova Street, are the center of cultural, tourist and business events in Belgrade. Located in the city center, these galleries are committed to nurturing long-term relations to the ancient history of Belgrade, while permeating and connecting art in the field of applied arts and design with the interests of a wide and diverse audience. Galleries are designed as a sales-type for works in the field of applied and fine arts.
Exhibition opening: Wednesday, 25th August, at 18h.
HackelBury Fine Art, London is pleased to present: Elemental Forms, Landscape, a solo exhibition of new work by Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer in which her love of nature and concern for the environment is reflected in her abstract landscapes which capture “the still point of the turning world”. (T.S. Eliot ‘Four Quartets’). Nikolova-Kratzer chooses a balancing act in her work between control and surrender, simplicity and intricacy, light and darkness. She uses simple shapes to create her photogram silhouettes, yet she works with a complex set of variables including temperature, humidity and the timing of the exposure – factors that fundamentally affect the outcome. Nikolova-Kratzer embraces this as she feels strongly that “it is this artifact of chance that brings meaning and excitement to life.”Her work becomes a metaphor for having the fearlessness to embrace the unknown.
Drawing on poetry, literature and a myriad of artistic influences including Japanese Notan design, Matisse paper-cuts and the organic landscapes of Georgia O’Keefe, Nikolova-Kratzer creates photographic compositions which become sculptural in their focus on the object yet have the depth and thought of a painting. Using geometrical shapes and floating planes, these works build on her preceding series of landscapes taking them to a higher level of abstraction. With the materiality of the photographic medium, she seeks to record intangible aspects of the landscape, as she experiences them, through immersion and observation, without the camera’s capacity for transcription.
Her practice is inextricably linked to her way of life. The physical process of creating work uses her daily ritual of walking in the redwood forests near her home in Oakland, California to connect with nature and respond intuitively whilst reflecting her belief in the concept of immanence.
About Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer
Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer (b. 1978, former Yugoslavia) is an artist working with wet plate collodion photograms – a historical technique dating back to the 1850s which uses light-sensitive salts to cover a glass plate before exposing it to the light in a portable darkroom. Her practice is informed by an experimental approach to early photographic processes and her interest in the image as an object. Captivated by the fluidity of wet plate collodion, she manipulates the medium while simultaneously courting chance intrinsic to handmade photography: “I spray, dab and brush on the chemistry in a performative enactment rather than an image capture. (Sometimes, the brush strokes leave physical marks on the emulsion.) In essence, I am negotiating with the chemistry, guiding it. But only to a point. The chemistry has a say in the final image.” Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer.
The abstract landscape series, Elemental Forms, Landscapes and Elemental Forms, Landscape Rearticulated, emerged as the artist’s direct response to her surroundings and to feeling a sense of wellbeing and security within the landscape. She believes that each locale has its specific identity, history, and emotional imprint. Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer has a degree in conservation and environmental sciences and a Master’s in Public Policy. She went on to study photography and historic processes at George Eastman Museum with Mark Osterman and at the University of Kentucky. She was a finalist for the 2018 LensCulture Exposure Awards. She lives and works in Oakland, California.
About HackelBury Fine Art
Founded by Sascha Hackel and Marcus Bury, HackelBury Fine Art deals in 20th and 21st century artworks. Established in 1998, the London gallery in Launceston Place is committed to nurturing long-term relationships with both artists and clients. It continues to evolve and progress through an expanding program of gallery exhibitions, museum projects and publishing ventures. The small group of artists with whom HackelBury work, represent a diversity of practice, pushing the boundaries of various media. The work and practice of these artists encompasses the worlds of photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture and performance. Each artist, whether emerging or established, creates work defined by a depth of thought and breadth and consistency of approach.
HACKELBURY FINE ART LTD 4 LAUNCESTON PLACE, LONDON W8 5RL T: 020 7937 8688 www.hackelbury.co.uk
In retrospect, in this fourth issue of Art Style Magazine, the bases of the primary aesthetic reflections are focused on modern art and avant-garde movements in their effects, mainly to represent the visually perceived universe of the constructivists, cubists, futurists, dadaists, and surrealists, configuring images through collage, montage, and assemblage to the techniques of film editing. The essay “Montage and Assemblage: an Aesthetic Shock” by Dominique Berthet presents the methods and theories of significant Russian filmmakers in the development of film editing effects and shows how “montage (editing) has transitioned from concept to concept in the film theory of young Soviet filmmakers.” For instance, the French word montage (1917) was appropriated and transformed into a concept–the concept of film editing–that is to say, that it loads of rich theoretical content. Also, he highlighted montage as an aesthetic and political challenge associated with other arts rather than with cinema. Moreover, he stated montage being based on the shock of fragments, themselves linked to artistic modernity, and the assembly of fragments as “the mark of refusal and emancipation vis-à-vis representation, déjà-vu, of the established order.” Finally, toward contemporary art in its “limitless hybridization of artistic practices.”
Excerpts from Glumov’s Diary is Eisenstein’s first film, 1923. Screenshot by Christiane Wagner. Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed).
“It should be noted that the contradictory debates between Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Vertov, and Eisenstein on the subject of montage must be seen in the context in which they were born – that is, the Soviet Union of 1917-1940. Montage assumes the selection of fragments, their combination (approximation), and the construction of a set” (Berthet 2019).
Art Style | Art & Culture International Magazine 