OPENING RECEPTION
September 14, 2012, 6 - 9 pm
EXHIBITIONS DATES
September 15 - November 10, 2012
ABOUT THE SHOW
On the occasion of the Berlin Art Week Jiri Svestka Berlin is pleased to present the young Slovakian artist Andrej Dubravsky (born 1987) with his first international solo show Golden Sands.
Although the artist hasnt finished his study at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava yet, he is already considered to be the most outstanding newcomer of Slovakia. In Dubravskys work the same sense of freedom and nonconformity can be witnessed, as last seen in the exhibition Zeitgeist (Berlin, 1982), where the expressive painting process and the large format was set to a new trend. With a similar inner bond towards the ongoing picturesque self-fulfillment, Dubravskys painting becomes an excess as well as an instrument of analytic narcissism. Manifested in subjectifying effects commercial aesthetics mingle with moments of queer desire. The protagonists of his paintings are mostly young men in sexually loaded and provocative situations. Their trademark: bunny ears. All of the exhibited works were painted in Dubravskys studio close to the recreation resort Zlaté piesky (engl. Golden Sands) this summer. They are based on an almost threatening atmosphere of raw beauty, sexuality, fetish and stereotyping.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Andrej Dubravsky, born 1987 in Slovakia, represents the very young scene of the former socialist country. Gathering experience as sculptor, he graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and is now mostly working in painting. Formally rather conventional, his paintings are dominated by unorthodox themes like self-gratification, homosexuality or intergenerational relationships. Taking his inspiration from old masters and actual social issues, his artistic gesture is subordinated to the acute need to find the right expression for the variety of feelings and (bittersweet) self-experiences of growing up.
Mainly centered on the male body, his artistic interests match with the up-to-date rules of popular culture: narcissistic self-presentation and inquiries of the own identity. This is somehow similar to Cindy Shermans masquerade, but with different intentions. Dubravskys ultimate fetish is the bunny-mask, which he (in contrast to Sherman) applies to a variety of portrayed persons, integrating them this way into his own world, which is dominated by the principle of pleasure and pain. Inspired by the myths of gay subculture, his playful bunny-dreaming transcends into a personal symbol, that makes each of his paintings complete. The bunny archetype is crucial to his work; becoming increasingly dominant, it takes a central position in the artists self-projection process, which transforms each of his paintings into a sort of self-portrait.
Using the visual language of sexual minorities, Dubravksy tries to seduce the viewer into an intimate relationship. With his paintings, he invites to a friendly journey into an unknown land, changing the visitor into a voyeur. Once caught in the mousetrap, one cannot avoid the variety of layers, which are deeply immanent to Dubravskys work. From this point of view, the content of his paintings can be understood as both; a metaphor for sexual awaking and glorification of the youth, or just as a simple image of someones (secret) everyday life. In both cases Dubravskys private show introduces the general discourse of male identity and male sexuality to a wider audience.