Text by Constantin Chariot

Valérie Bach gallery is pleased to present the second solo show by Lucy+Jorge Orta in Brussels. The artists present two series of works, brought together for the first time, uniting three-dimensional works with paintings in order to shed light their creative process.

 

 

International Archives 1st half of 2017

Lucy + Jorge Orta

Galerie Valérie Bach, Brussels (Belgium)

17.03 - 29.04.2017

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© ArtCatalyse International / Marika Prévosto 2017. All Rights Reserved

The first section of the exhibition is based the cell: the cell of life, the residential cell, the prison cell, etc. Forms and volumes made of hand-blown glass represent various aspects of our biological universe. In the series entitled « Totipotent », Lucy + Jorge Orta refer to the monumental architectonical structure, the evident formula, the key element in the development of cells. This force, this « full potential » (« Totipentency ») of a cell is an ever-growing powerful virtual energy, that can only come to its end under certain conditions.

This series on cells, source of hope and dynamism, portend the second part the exhibition, based on Jorge's pictorial work in 1970s, when painting was his way of escaping the overwhelming Argentine dictatorship, and in which the exhibited works explore the idea of the accident as both a violent moment but also as a random, uncontrolled phenomenon. In the series « Derrame » - Spanish for overflow, leak, spill, or attack (of the brain) - Lucy + Jorge Orta infused these meanings into intense, colourful, flat hemorrhages. These accidents become both the essential composition and the subject matter of the painting.

These artworks are based on the uncontrolled, similar to the action of cellular duplication. Driven by their own necessity - frustrating for the artists who lose control – they are followed by the artists' latest creations grouped under the name « Assemblages ». The series comprises three-dimensional works, whose chaotic arrays and juxtapositions of colour and collages of "formal reality" on the pictorial surface: stretcher bars, life-buoys, window frames resemble an accident.

This exhibition is therefore a synthesis of the couple's creative energy and their relation to the world through their scholarly search, exploring doubt and balance against a background of vital and infinite breath.

 

Exhibition 17 March - 29 April 2017. Galerie Valérie Bach, 15 rue Veydt - 1060 Brussels (Belgium) - Tel.: +32 2 533 03 90. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 am to 1 pm and from 2 to 7 pm.

 

 

 

 

© Lucy+Jorge Orta - Untitled, 2016, Assemblage painting on wood, ladder, life ring, aluminium bars, window frames, resin - 520 x 230 cm