Ajna Gábriel
Sensorial Realities
March 21 - April 10, 2009
Reception:
Thursday March 26, 2009 6-8 PM
Press Release
The subtle complexities of everyday objects and glances – some pensive, others violent – gradually emerge from Hungarian artist Ajna Gábriel's paintings. Crafting a distinctive style with elements of pop art, expressionism, surrealism and Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism, she uses heavy lines and strong colors to portray still-lifes, portraits and landscapes. Her nuanced aesthetic simultaneously confronts viewers and confides in us. This mix of force and vulnerability makes Gábriel's works especially rewarding to engage with, as they inevitably reveal so much more than what we first see.
In portraits, subjects strike poses that are alternately defiant or timid, but their gazes consistently suggest opposite demeanors. Gábriel reveals her characters through their eyes. Her still-lifes present guns and the innards of home electronics like radios with stylized, matter-of-fact irony. Her unifying sensibility is in representing difficult objects with soft, humorous edges, and, conversely, finding pride and inner strength in sensitive and exposed subjects. By finding humor in hardship and investing honesty with power, Gábriel teaches us to see differently.
Invitation to the exhibition
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View the catalog page
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Artists in this exhibition
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