Vladimír Ossif | my man is married but not to me
22 March – 3 May 2018
ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava
Vladimír Ossif is a painter who remains faithful to free geometric abstraction. Looking at his live, pulsating images, we are struck by the fact that the artist’s frequent changes of life setting serve him as a constantly new source of inspiration and also as a spiritual cleansing. Ossif himself says that he likes to change the places where he lives, that it gives him the necessary energy to make art. Images, he believes, carry the traces of life. Hence movement becomes characteristic of his work. Motifs in the paintings have an explosive function, and the individual shapes collide with one another, overlap and enter into confrontation; in particular cases the painter negates them with a single sweep of his brush. Alongside those, however, his work also includes compositions which have a much calmer, less tense effect. Here the geometric forms are mutually respectful, and one does not intervene in another’s territory.
In his language of visual art, with its own specific system of signs, this artist communicates something that can scarcely be formulated in words. With each further work he seems to have pushed on further in search of a certain fundamental thing. A famous 20th century thinker, Ludwig Wittgenstein, once wrote: “Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent”. When words no longer suffice, silence has more to say. Here, however, what speaks is painting.
Individual motifs cluster not just within one painting but over several paintings, and thus in decoding the content our receptive field is naturally expanded. Although in terms of reception the paintings all work singly by themselves, as one peruses the series the continuity of the artist’s entire output comes to the fore. Vladimír Ossif’s third solo exhibition in succession at the Zahorian & Van Espen gallery, entitled “my man is married but not to me”, offers us a view of Ossif’s work currently.
Vladimír Ossif studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and later at the Ecole National Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. He regularly exhibits his work at solo and group exhibitions (of his solo projects we may mention those at BronxArtSpace, New York, USA; Rödl&Partner Gallery, Nürnberg, Germany; PPM Ventures, München, Germany; Gallery Henry, Pau, France; City Gallery, Opole, Poland). Works by Vladimír Ossif are represented in state and private galleries, museums and collections (Musée d´Art Moderne, Paris; Casa de Velázquez, Madrid; Fonds Cantonal d´Art Visuel, Geneva; SNG Bratislava; Narodní galerie, Prague).
Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council as main partner
Vladimír Ossif | my man is married but not to me
22. 3. – 3. 5. 2018
ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN Bratislava
Vladimír Ossif je maliar, ktorý ostáva verný voľnej geometrickej abstrakcii. Pri pohľade na jeho živé pulzujúce obrazy nám napadá, že autorove častá zmena životného prostredia, je preňho nielen stále novým zdrojom inšpirácie, ale i duchovnou očistou. Vladimír Ossif sám o sebe tvrdí, že rád mení miesta, kde žije, dodáva mu to potrebnú energiu pre tvorbu. Obrazy podľa neho nesú stopy života. Príznačným pre dielo sa tak stáva práve pohyb. Motívy na obrazoch pôsobia ako explózia, jednotlivé tvary do seba narážajú, prekrývajú sa, dostávajú sa do vzájomných konfrontácií, tie v niektorých prípadoch maliar neguje jedným výrazným gestom štetca. Popri tom sa však v jeho tvorbe objavujú i kompozície, ktoré pôsobia omnoho pokojnejšie, menej napäto. Tu sa geometrické tvary navzájom rešpektujú, nezasahujú do svojho teritória.
Svojim výtvarným jazykom, špecifickým systémom znakov, autor komunikuje to, čo je len ťažko vyjadriť slovami. Každým ďalším dielom sa maliar akoby posúval hlbšie v hľadaní určitej podstaty. Ludwig Wittgenstein, známy mysliteľ dvadsiateho storočia, raz napísal: ,,O tom, o čom sa nemožno rozprávať, musíme mlčať“. Tam, kde už slová nestačia, napovie viac ticho. Tu však hovorí maľba.
Jednotlivé motívy sa preskupujú nielen v rámci jedného, ale i viacerých obrazov, preto sa naše pole recepcie v dekódovaní obsahu prirodzene rozširuje. Hoci obrazy recepčne fungujú aj samé osebe, pri čítaní diela vystupuje kontinuita celého autorovho diela. V poradí tretia samostatná výstava Vladimíra Ossifa (posledná v roku 2015) v Zahorian & Van Espen gallery s názvom “my man is married but not to me” prináša pohľad na Ossifovu aktuálnu tvorbu.
Vladimír Ossif študoval na Vysokej škole výtvarných umení v Bratislave, neskôr v Paríži študoval na Ecole National Superieure des Arts Decoratifs. Pravidelne vystavuje na samostatných i skupinových výstavách (zo sólových projektov spomeňme galérie BronxArtSpace, New York, USA, Rödl&Partner Gallery, Nürnberg, Germany, PPM Ventures in München, Germany, Gallery Henry in Pau, France, City gallery, Opole, Poland). Diela Vladimíra Ossifa sú zastúpené v štátnych i súkromných galériách, múzeách a zbierkach (Musée d´Art Moderne, Paris, France, Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, Spain, Fonds Cantonal d´Art Visuel in Geneva, Switzerland, SNG Bratislava, Narodní galerie, Praha).
Fotoreport: Marko Horban
Projekt podporil z verejných zdrojov Fond na podporu umenia ako hlavný partner