Custot Gallery Dubai is holding the group exhibition titled Material Journey. It features the art pieces by Etel Adnan, Kenia Almaraz Murillo, Enrico Castellani, Michael Glancy, Jean-François Fourtou, Yves Klein, Joan Mitchell, Takis, Tomàs Saraceno, Pablo Reinoso, Joana Vasconcelos, and Sophia Vari. The show will be open to the public until the 14th of January, 2023.
The exhibition is a dream-like synesthetic adventure. It activates visitors’ five physical senses through the displayed artworks — auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile ones — thus, it also aims to awaken one’s sixth sense related to imagination. The sense of journey through matter is highlighted by the fact that the works on display are made of materials from all over the world, so cultures are brought together entirely through matter.
In her exhibited art pieces, artist Kenia Almaraz Murillo shows her dual culture between Bolivian roots and her western life. Using traditional Bolivian threading techniques, she produces textile patterns and completes them with neon lights, vehicle headlights, and minerals.
In the ‘Lança Perfume’ series by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, an olfactory and visual experience is created: traditional Portuguese baroque crochet techniques are applied to ceramic items soaked in perfume. The perfume was made by the master perfumer Anne Flipo; the scents are based on the 7 chakras.
One of the works by Joan Mitchell, an American abstract artist, is also on view. In this intimate triptych, she recreates her memory of landscapes. A process of emotional expression based on a reference from outside puts a viewer in a state of gaze at the recollection of nature.
Sophia Vari’s sculptures bear a similar sense of expression. This visual artist from Greece puts geometric lines and curves together and this way creates unique forms speaking of sensuality, dynamism, and beauty.
Self-taught Greek artist Takis, artist Tomàs Saraceno from Argentina, and Italian artist Enrico Castellani explore the concept of matter as energy. Takis uses the movement of light creating an ethereal play as a foil to the solid mass. In Castellani’s artworks, a sense of negative space is created: the lack of matter in one place enhances the visual language of the matter in the other. Tomàs Saraceno covers his installations with iridescent panels. Casting radiant hues and reflections as visitors move in the space, they create an endlessly evolving perception of the object in its environment.
To learn more about the exhibition, please visit the official web page.
You may also be interested in visiting No Condition Is Permanent by Taysir Batniji.
