Art Rotterdam

For Art Rotterdam 2019 Rutger Brandt Gallery (booth 6) showcases three young and talented artists: Carlos Sagrera (1987, Madrid), Matthias Schaareman (1986, Arnhem) and Robert Barta (1975, Prague).

 All three artists are concerned with space and how it translates into a two- or three-dimensional work. In their formal approach to shape, color and composition they research how the mind can play tricks by ways of memory. Abstractions of consciousness lead to fractured forms either in the paintings by Carlos Sagrera or Matthias Schaaremans’ collages.

Carlos Sagrera works on the basis of an old family photo archive, he combines these images with memories of places he lived or where friends once lived. The realistic details in Sagrera’s work are on an exceptionally high artistic level, but true excitement unfolds when common and recognizable motifs are translated into abstract streaks of color.

Matthias Schaareman is inspired by decorative patterns and shapes that are used in Arabic miniatures and Russian icons. In the flat spaces or vistas in his works, the spacial elements are ordered and played with in a collage-like manner until all the separate parts come together as one.

Robert Barta casts an amused eye on the world through his installations and finds the material for his artistic work in everyday objects or situations-the foundations of his unbridled world. With slight alterations, incongruous combinations, plays on words and shift in meaning, he establishes a strategy of misuse that transforms the nature of familiar objects to reveal their inner essence and the paradoxes and tensions that give them life.