S.P.R.A.Y. – Works by 4 Contemporary Swiss Artists March 28, 2014 -- May 5th 2014.

Artvera’s gallery is pleased to present S.P.R.A.Y., an exhibition featuring works by four contemporary Swiss artists who share an interest in the spray (airbrush) technique: Crystel Ceresa, Stéphane Ducret, Thierry Feuz, and Daniel Orson Ybarra. The exhibition, comprised of 25 paintings, is on view from March 28th, 2014 to May 5th, 2014, with the press preview on Thursday, March 27th from 11:30 am to 2 pm, and the opening reception at 6 pm.

Organized by Artvera’s director, Sofia Komarova, in close collaboration with the artists, S.P.R.A.Y. brings together a group of stylistically diverse, contemporary art works that reflect broad creative possibilities of the technique. Originally used for coloring illustrations, decorative elements, models, and industrial parts, the spray technique gained popularity in the first half of the 20th century among avant-garde artists who were looking to use modern tools and technology in the development of their artwork. Surfacing simultaneously in the U.S. and Europe, with the Dada movement, exemplified by Man Ray, and the Bauhaus School in Germany, with Wassily Kandinsky, it was subsequently explored by post-war abstract and contemporary artists, such as Jules Olitski and Dan Christensen.

"We are delighted to present these remarkable Swiss artists in our gallery," said Sofia Komarova. "Although we are a gallery specializing in the modern masters, we are interested in showcasing contemporary artists in an unexpected context. After our successful retrospective of internationally-renowned Swiss lyrical abstractionist Gerard Schneider, we want to continue showing Swiss talent and have another exhibition planned for the near future, which will focus on photography."

While the four artists all work with the airbrush technique, they each maintain a respectively bold, confident, and markedly different approach to the exploration of aerosol and spray paint as a creative medium.

Crystel Ceresa (b. 1977) paints large-scale works, spraying the paint at the canvas to create decorative, collage-like compositions. While her subjects are bright and flowery in appearance, a closer look reveals their deep connection to art history and its recurrent themes: the baroque vanitas, the white-powdered portraits of Rococo, and the idealized female figures of Pre-Rafaelites. Ceresa’s works have an aura of intimacy and often suggest fragile remembrances that can pale, fade, and disappear at any time, as in the 2013 painting Island Angel, shown in the exhibition. Ceresa graduated from l’Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Geneva. Her work is represented in many public and private collections in Europe such as the Academisch Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam; Bank Julius Bär, Basel; Crédit Suisse, Zurich;  Zurich Versicherungen, Basel; HSBC, Zurich; Sammlung Yves Racloz, Geneva; and Sammlung Nicolas Torroni, Geneva.  

Stéphane Ducret’s (b. 1970) work engages the audience in a dialogue about their perception of life and uses painting to explore the process of achieving eudaimonia (Greek for “happiness”). Humor, celebration of the senses, surprise, and the quest for beauty stand at the center of his work. The most recent works by Ducret in spray paint are first and foremost the visual trace of concentrated action, of a conceptually prepared process. Ducret is fascinated by the language of pure form, lines, and colors and, above all, their potential to transport worldliness. A graduate of l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel in Geneva and a recipient of The Leenaards Foundation Grant Award and the FCDAV Award, Ducret had studio residences in New York, Porto, and Buenos Aires. Ducret’s work has been exhibited at many international venues, including the Forum d’Art Contemporain, Sierre; the Fundación OSDE and the Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires; the Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne; Centre PasquArt, Bienne; the Artists Space and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; the Musée de Pully, Pully and included in many public and private collections.

Thierry Feuz (b. 1968) creates his paintings using a mix of acrylic and lacquer, which highlights and intensifies the colors and gives vibrant lift to his semi abstract world. Over the past few years, Feuz has created an ongoing series of paintings—“Supernatural,” “Psychotropical,” “Technicolor,” and, most recently, “Gulfstream.” Each successive series appears to magnify the view of the preceding one, as though seen through a microscope. Feuz uses this scientific corollary to reexamine classic conceptions of nature, a force that is at once beautiful and picturesque yet is always already in decay. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and is included in public and private collections including Art Singapore Foundation; Credit Suisse; Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (Switzerland); Wellington Management Company Collection (Great Britain); Saks Fifth Avenue Collection, (New York); Lego Group, and Nordea (Denmark).

Daniel Orson Ybarra’s (b. 1957) works with watercolors, gouaches, acrylics, waxes, resins, pigments, oils, and collage. His latest series Germinaciones, Semilleros are based on the artist’s observation and reflection on organic forms and their manifestations. These striking paintings explore the nature of growth and metamorphosis. Born in Uruguay, Ybarra began his art studies at the age of 12 via a drawing correspondence course from Mexico. At 18, he embarked on an 8-year adventure, which took him through South and North Americas, Europe, Scandinavia, North Africa, and the Middle East. In 1984, Ybarra settled in Geneva and has been spending his time between Geneva and Barcelona where he collaborates with architects on projects dealing with the study of space and its relationship with light. Ybarra’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and is represented in public and corporate collections including Museo Atarazanas (Spain) and Collection R.R. (Spain).

ABOUT ARTVERA’S

Artvera’s is a Geneva-based art gallery specializing in European and Russian masters of modern art. Since opening its doors in 2007, Artvera’s has offered museum-quality exhibitions and promoted the discovery and rediscovery of prominent artists, sometimes overlooked by art historians and scholars. The 5,400 square-foot gallery occupies a lovingly restored medieval building in the heart of Geneva’s old town.

 The gallery has presented individual and group exhibitions, including “Der Blauer Reiter, Die Bruecke, The Knave of Diamond” (2008-2009), “Serge Charchoune: Retrospective” (2009-2010), “Pointillism” (2011), “Friedrich Karl Gotsch” (2011-2012), “Gérard Schneider” (2012-2013), and “René Rimbert” (2013-2014).

Artvera’s collaborates closely with museums, and regularly lends artworks to prestigious exhibitions worldwide.

The gallery is led by director Sofia Komarova. Schooled in St. Petersburg and Geneva, Komarova possesses a vast wealth of knowledge and a wide range of expertise in acquisition and appraisal.

Press contact:
Dalia Stoniene
Susan Grant Lewin Associates
1 212-947-4557 / 718-316-5509
dalia@susangrantlewin.com