The Beauty of the Matter

Fifteen years ago, at the corner of the bridge in Calle Calegheri and close to La Fenice Theater, La Galleria - Venetian dependence of Galerie Dorothea van der Koelen in Mainz - opened its doors to the public for the first time. Since then, the white and bright spaces of La Galleria has been filled with precious works of international artists, and has hosted important moments of encounter and exchange between artists and audience, becoming a meeting point for new friends and a recognized space for the high quality of its proposals in the world of contemporary art.

To celebrate this important anniversary, on May 26, 2016 from 17:00 La Galleria inaugurates “The Beauty of the Matter", a wonderful exhibition dedicated to the beauty and the value of diversity… and to Venice!

"The Beauty of the Matter" asks us to think about Beauty as an intrinsic quality, held even in a material which at first sight could seem less precious. Beauty does not correspond only to a formal harmony, but also to a depth of meaning and content.
As well, the architecture of the city of Venice, which at first glance seems dark and decadent, after a more comprehensive analysis turns out to be an extraordinary, unique sedimentation of beauty through the centuries, given by the culture enclosed in every detail, style, ornaments, in the history of materials and components.
Thus the works on display in the rooms of La Galleria - while presenting the most diverse, poor materials (plexiglass, wood, aluminum, paper, copper, stone,… ) - convey a message of inner beauty, transmitted by the artist to his work, and finally to the observer. They are very different works which together give life to new combinations and new solutions, to new ideas.

The sculptures from the series Completion by Vera Rohm combine the natural vitality of the wood to the industrial transparency of plexiglas: two opposite but complementary materials in the artist's work. The plexiglas gives back a shape to the broken wood, returns its boundary. Where nature has been broken, culture can help to rebuild.

The work Chaosbox by Arne Quinze allows us to mirror through its unmistakable texture of fire-red pieces of wood, enclosed in a glass porthole. The red wooden sticks are all glued together, perfectly fitting a structure which could stand alone outside the glass. In a world where so many things are getting into chaos, we have to create new structures to survive, new systems, a new order. Connected together, all the little pieces of woods are safe, and the Chaosbox contains its poetic, fascinating red perfection, which strongly touch us. As observers, we become part of the artwork, inserting our own reflection in the red wood wave, part of this new structure. 

Lore Bert introduces to us her new relief-objects in precious Japanese paper. On display, together with other smaller works, White Ornament is woven on a large carpet of Japanese paper in a strong yellow color. A simple little piece of paper would mean nothing, but together with all the others, it creates an incredible, delicate beauty. The intense colors that Lore Bert chooses for these works are indicative, especially in recent years, of an unstoppable creative instinct, although contained in the delicacy and lightness of the final result.This year Lore Bert celebrates her 80th birthday: on the occasion, a traveling show (already started on Friday 15 April in Rome at the Circolo del Ministero degli Esteri) will touch several cities around the world. The exhibition will move soon to Venice, Milan, Palermo,… and will touch also several cities in Switzerland, Germany, USA and Mexico. 

Daniel Buren, one of the most important representatives of minimal art in France, exhibits one of his unmistakable wood works in black and white stripes. On display there will be one of his historical works in situ, conceived almost 30 years ago, which connects art and architecture. The striped wall made of wood and placed parallel to the walls of the room creates a new building. Looking through its hole, we see a painting on the wall. Once again, playing with space and with the three-dimensional decomposition of the elements, the artist surprises the observer us creating new points of view.

Mohammed Kazem, bearing figure of the contemporary art scene in the UAE and well known around the world, joins the exhibition with two different works. Fixing Nothing, in aluminum and metal, is the artist’s personal reflection on the nature of the work of art: in a world which is constantly changing, art changes too and follows its waves. Art should not need to be efficient, useful, practical… art is free. The screws in the installation do not fix anything, as they should do in our daily life.
The light installation Measuring is a white lacquered cube on which the artist tracks endless lines with the intention of defining the solid in all its dimensions and in all directions.

Hellmut Bruch presents two large works in yellow fluorescent acrylic glass (Excentric Progression and 3 Gates Progression), on which he engraves concentric and progressive lines, following the rules of the Fibonacci Series. According to the golden ratio proportions, the observer perceives a complete harmony from the composition in which the lines, marked with a triangular edge on the bottom of the acrylic glass, capture natural light and appear to glow like phosphorescent neons on the surface of the plate.

Mario Reis shows two different series of works. River Paintings (the artist calls them Natural Watercolours) are “natural self-portraits” of the rivers in which the artist immerses his canvas. While the water flows through the canvas, its rocky and earthy sediments settle on it. Once dried, they define on the canvas a unique and distinctive palette, full of beauty. Blind Drawings are the result of an experimental procedure: the artist, blindfolded and limited in his movements, draws impulsive traces on paper, starting a process which becomes a beautiful drawing, although it does not follow a composition.

The exhibition also hosts the kinetic sculpture SIE 1 (THEY n°1) by Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler, two young artists who devote themselves to the study of the influence of technology on the individual and on the society. The electronic movement of their creations reveals a great potential for humor and encourages us to question our relationship with the new media; the beauty of the materials (magnetic coils and tangles of copper cables), the precision and care in the conception of the structure arouse emotion.

Jan Van Munster presents his work Battery for Two: these two sculptures of granit, heavy and strong, contain a large amount of ancient energy. Encrusted in the stone we can see two symbols in bronze, reminding to the basic inner opposition of positive and negative, which is in everything and marks the universe. On the back of the spheres there is a hole, through which we can get in contact with the energy of the stone, and “charge” our living batteries with its ancient and eternal energy.

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