2017-03-08

6662 - 20170429 - Galerie Valerie Bach - Brussel - Lucy+Jorge Orta - 17.03.2017-29.04.2017

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© Lucy+Jorge Orta - « Untitled », 2016, Assemblage painting on wood, ladder, life ring, aluminium bars, window frames, resin - 520 x 230 cm
 
LUCY+JORE ORTA

Valérie Bach gallery presents the second solo show by Lucy+Jorge Orta in Brussels.

The artists present two series of works, brought together for the first time, uniting three-dimensional works with paintings in order to shed light their creative process.

The first section of the exhibition is based the cell: the cell of life, the residential cell, the prison cell, etc. Forms and volumes made of hand-blown glass represent various aspects of our biological universe. In the series entitled « Totipotent », Lucy + Jorge Orta refer to the monumental architectonical structure, the evident formula, the key element in the development of cells. This force, this « full potential » (« Totipentency ») of a cell is an ever-growing powerful virtual energy, that can only come to its end under certain conditions.

This series on cells, source of hope and dynamism, portend the second part the exhibition, based on Jorge's pictorial work in 1970s, when painting was his way of escaping the overwhelming Argentine dictatorship, and in which the exhibited works explore the idea of the accident as both a violent moment but also as a random, uncontrolled phenomenon. In the series « Derrame » - Spanish for overflow, leak, spill, or attack (of the brain) - Lucy + Jorge Orta infused these meanings into intense, colourful, flat hemorrhages. These accidents become both the essential composition and the subject matter of the painting.

These artworks are based on the uncontrolled, similar to the action of cellular duplication. Driven by their own necessity - frustrating for the artists who lose control – they are followed by the artists' latest creations grouped under the name « Assemblages ». The series comprises three-dimensional works, whose chaotic arrays and juxtapositions of colour and collages of "formal reality" on the pictorial surface: stretcher bars, life-buoys, window frames resemble an accident.

This exhibition is therefore a synthesis of the couple's creative energy and their relation to the world through their scholarly search, exploring doubt and balance against a background of vital and infinite breath.
Constantin Chariot

Lucy and Jorge Orta co-founded Studio Orta in 1992. They now work under the co-authorship Lucy + Jorge Orta.
The artists' collaborative practice focuses on social and ecological issues, employing a diversity of media – sculpture, installation, couture, painting, silkscreen, photography, video, drawing, light and performance – to realize major bodies of work. Orta's artwork has been the focus of important survey exhibitions, including: The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery, London (2005); Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice Biennale (2005); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2006); Biennial of the End of the World, Ushuaia, Antarctic Peninsula (2007); Hangar Bicocca spazio d'arte, Milan (2008); Natural History Museum, London (2010); MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome and Shanghai Biennale (2012); Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2013); Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca and Parc de la Villette, Paris (2014); London Museum Ontario (2015); Peterborough City Museum (2016).
In recognition of their contribution to sustainability, the artists received the Green Leaf Award (2007) for artistic excellence with an environmental message, presented by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Lucy Orta was born in 1966 in the UK. After studying fashion-knitwear design she debuted her artistic career with Jorge in Paris in 1991. In 2002, she co-founded the pioneer Master programme Man & Humanity, promoting social and sustainable design at the Design Academy of Eindhoven. She is currently professor and Chair of Art and the Environment at the London University of the Arts.

Jorge Orta was born in 1953 in Argentina and studied simultaneously at the Fine-Arts (1972-1979) and Architecture (1973- 1980) Faculties of the Universidad Nacional of Rosario. He moved to France in 1984 receiving a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign and European affairs to pursue a D.E.A. (Diplôme d'études approfondies) at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In 1999, Lucy + Jorge Orta established their studios in Seine-et-Marne and founded their research complex, Les Moulins in 2011.


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