Esphyr Slobodkina

at Valerie Carberry Gallery

Sails, 1955

The left part(two rectangles) is how you imagine an adventure. The wind practically is tearing off the sails. You are full of hope, energy and speed. The shining polished ship is clipping the distance with astonishing velocity. The right part(the 3 small rectangles) is how it happens in real life. You are advancing in small, well calculated steps. You are working very hard to do a routine work over and over again. Only when you overcome all of those and all of pains then you get to the summit. But it is not an adventure, it is a victory over yourself. This is summit of your spirit.

Gerhard Richter

at Kukje Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Abstraktes Bild (862-2), 1999

Imagination can take you places. Or you can build places. And it could be huge, magnificent palaces. The wilder the imagination the more extravagant things you can create using your thoughts. Strong imagination can over shine the reality. It can be so strong that dreams can substitute the reality. You start living in your fantasy (in easy cases it can be cured with medication :). In the earliest collision between imagined world and reality, the mighty arcs of your palace are turned into smoke rings. The reality breeze takes them and the fog of imagination away, clearing the field. The field of harsh, bleak real life.

David Tremlett

at New Art Centre (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Construction and Space #2

The regular people move on the solid base(the solid rectangles from the left to the center). Their choices are solid, sound and logical.But they progress slowly. It takes time to build a good foundation. Some people can progress more rapidly by taking educated guesses (from the center to the right). And a few people can create something that at first glance has nothing to do with its environments(the red rectangles). Those people are geniuses. They see things that others don't. Their creativity and imagination are so outlandish that they are on the border with insanity(red).

Ulla von Brandenburg

Ulla von Brandenburg at Pilar Corrias (The Armory Show 2012)

Kulisy, 2010

 This is the Theater. The backstage. It reminds you a ship: a wooden deck, ropes, curtains(sails). It is a magical ship that is ready to take you to the sea of imagination. It is a mysterious place. Each curtain partially opens the next space. This partial uncovering lures you. You want to find behind every curtain something interesting, new and exciting.But if you get all the curtains up you will see that this is only your imagination.You will realize that it's only big empty space.

Jason Fox

Jason Fox at Peter Blum Gallery

Untitled, 2011

 People are afraid of the Unknown. They can't stand it. They have instincts of hunters-gatherers, so they need to explore. They are always in the search for new things. This is the only way people can survive. They have to color all the white spots on the map.You use the common sense and logic to pave the way(the brown rectangles). The next layer is hope, energy and imagination (the green rectangles).

Caragh Thuring

Caragh Thuring at Thomas Dane Gallery (Art Basel Miami Beach 2011)

Untitled

This is how the artist's imagination works. From a simple entrance room with tiles, you build a stairs. That takes beyond the shut doors. You can "see" things that you are not supposed to see.From there, your imagination and associations give a multitude of "stairs" to jump on. Because you can put only so much into one painting, you have to divide the dream into several pieces. Each piece become a separate artwork.

Alexis Marguerite Teplin

Alexis Marguerite Teplin at Gavlak (Art Basel Miami Beach 2011)

Boy Untitled 1 (Mallorca)

The boy is very innocent(lots of pink). He is very passionate(reds). He is full of dreams and hopes(blues). He imagines wild adventures.He dreams about boats flying under a strong wind with full sail. He is absolutely sure that there are no problems or difficulties  that he can't overcome with his extraordinary abilities.But sometimes his ship of dreams crashes against the concrete of reality(the lower right corner) and the fog of imagination opens up(the white stain).