It's September again, time for viennacontemporary 27.09 - 30.09.2018. We have the great pleasure to present works by Roman Cotosman and Mircea Popescu at Stand E16.
Jecza Gallery always juxtaposes artists of different generations at Vienna Contemporary. This year the gallery has the pleasure to present works by Roman Cotosman and Mircea Popescu at Stand E16.
The works of Roman Cotosman (1935-2006) and Mircea Popescu (1985) create a dialogue over time. With more then 50 years age difference between the two artists, they communicate on a visual and conceptual level. Both artists are focused on art as a continuous experiment, trying to develop a new visual language based on abstraction and constructivism. Both artists have the visual experiment at the core of their work, being interested for e.g. to reinvent the art of printmaking by adapting and therefore changing its technical boundaries to their innovative ideas.
On one hand, Roman Cotosman was one of the founders of Group 1.1.1. alongside Stefan Bertalan and Constantin Flondor. He left Romania on the occasion of the Konstruktiv Biennale 1969 in Nurnberg and settled in Philadelphia, USA. He continued to develop his visual language despite his progressively debilitating illness and incredible physical suffering. The reinterpretation of the realm of forms led Cotosman to abstraction, to the point of a "rhythmical void" expressed to minimalist works. "When I draw, I get lost in what I am searching... now I draw freely, my geometry is decomposing itself, just like me."
On the other hand, Mircea Popescu defines his works as being a sort of pop-constructivism, combining the visual language of constructivism with the funny, ironic and colourful world of Pop Culture. He is passionate about language, words, word riddles, calligraphy and typography. His works tell his own story, being also a sort of minimalist reflection upon the world. He quotes both the Constructivist as well as the Pop-artists, but he gives them a contemporary twist. On first sight he may fool our perception, on a second look they speak about time and space traveling, about solitude, about the cloud that saves our daily recordings; or our inner walls, stairs and doors we face every day.