Geneva, Switzerland—Artvera’s Gallery will present an exhibition of photography featuring works by four contemporary Swiss artists, Iseult Labote, Cedric Bregnard, Vincent Calmel, and Patrick Weidman. On view May 9 – June 9, 2014, the exhibition entitled SWISS PHOTO is Artvera’s second show dedicated to contemporary Swiss art. The gallery previously mounted S.P.R.A.Y., the exhibition of works by four Swiss artists sharing an interest in the airbrush (spray) technique.

SWISS PHOTO reveals the inquisitive and experimental spirit of today’s Swiss photographers who use modern photography processes and technologies to show the world of familiar objects in a new and unexpected way. With over fifty works in the exhibition, the four artists showcase their creative possibilities for exploration of photography as a medium of contemporary art.

"The reality captured by these four artists—through a precise angle, a particular framing, a distinct light, a personal theme, a surprising staging—makes us, in words of Moholy-Nagy, ‘see the world with new eyes’ said Artvera's director Sofia Komarova, "Inspired by the real and the imaginary, the industrial and the natural, the pop culture and the art history, they draw on the wide range of materials to stretch photography’s limits of expression."

Iseult Labote’s (b. 1959) photographs, created without any artificial intervention or staged set-up, explore the aesthetic of the contemporary industrial world. In the heart of transit locations, construction sites, warehouses, factories -- locations permeated by temporality – the artist guides her attention towards the feeling of intense presence, which emanates from them. By freezing the materials, structures, and surfaces, Labote finds and brings forth the hidden poetry and sensuality stemming from abandonment and destruction. Labote’s photographs are included in private and public collections in Switzerland, France, Italy, Greece, and the United States, including Fonds Cantonal d’Art Contemporain (FCAC), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCO); Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva; the Greek National Bank; and the Contemporary Museum of Thessalonica, SMCA (State Museum of Contemporary Art), among others.

Cedric Bregnard (b. 1974) has been observing nature since the age of 15, and has made it the subject of his works. Drawing inspiration from Asian philosophies that perceive human nature as aligned with the rest of nature, the artist seeks to express its essence in his creative process. From tiny seeds to magnificent cedar forests, Bregnard shows the living matter as it appears, in its simplest and purest form. Bregnard often uses a light with no shadow, making the subjects of his photographs appear almost weightless. His Vital Energy Series, included in this exhibition, combine the negative and the positive versions of the image revealing the unexpected richness of the structure. A graduate of the Vevey photography school, Bregnard shows his work in solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Mexico.

The photographs of Vincent Calmel (b. 1971), which reference famous classic paintings, place some of the most recognizable scenes in art history —David’s Marat, Boticelli’s Venus, Millais’s Ophelia —in contemporary settings. Calmel’s sophisticated and sometimes startling images reinterpret these classic works merging the known and the unexpected. The nature of representation and identity has been an important theme in Calmel’s photographs. After a serious motorcycle accident in 2010 left his face disfigured, Calmel underwent the reconstructive surgery. While the surgery was successful, learning to recognize himself again and start to live with a face, which really wasn’t his own deeply impacted Calmel’s perceptions and his art.

Artist and writer Patrick Weidmann (b. 1958) has been focusing on photography since the early 1990s. Weidmann’s photographic work explores the mass aesthetics and consumerist society by depicting our everyday objects--a Jacuzzi, an airplane seat, an electronic circuit, a soft toy, a cross-section of a car-- and framing the image so as to accentuate its fragmentary nature, itself characteristic of photography. Sometimes identifiable, sometimes abstracted, these fragments give us the panoramic view of the consumer society. Weidmann’s photographs has had solo museum and gallery exhibitions worldwide, including Centre de la Photographie and MAMCO in Geneva, and has been included in group exhibitions in Europe and the United States.


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.