Armageddon: Mariano Chelo

Rather late in the day, as the exhibition is over, but here is my review of Armageddon at ArtMoorHouse:

Armageddon has begun in the City of London. The countdown to Apocalypse is over and an existential explosion has covered the ground floor walls of Moor House in Moorgate.

Mariano Chelo, from Bosa in Sardinia, is an abstract, installation and performance artist who founded MAP (Movementi Artistici Periferici), a gallery/workshop where he has exhibited his own and other artists’ works. While he has shown work internationally, this is his first solo show in the UK. In his work Chelo has journeyed from traditional beginnings – landscapes, still life and figure studies – through a period of collaboration with advertising agencies - as he abandoned painting for photography and graphic design in the 1980s – to the extravagant expressionism of his current abstractions and action painting performances.

Armageddon features paintings formed out of darkness. Beginning with inky blacks swirled and dripped and covered in the sheen and shimmer of varnish, these are works exploring the emotions of an underworld – physical or personal, in which a limited palette of colours, under pressure, boil and churn to rise in spurts and splurges of volcanic red. ‘Illusione Russo’ is split by a jet-black crevice from which beautiful surges of fiery oranges and reds flow to fill the canvas. ‘Confusamente Russo’ and ‘Russo’ fill their canvasses with the flicker and flare of flame.

Fire is, therefore, one motif Chelo uses for the experience of personal and social Armageddon. Water is another. Biblical motifs underpin much musing generally on apocalypse and Chelo, while not foregrounding Biblical references, certainly has images of deluge and flood within his frame. ‘Oblivion’, in particular, evokes - in blues, blacks and whites - the submerging of our world and consciousness. He ends the show more peacefully, using blacks, greys and whites, by depicting the stillness of the sea in evocative works (‘Mare’ and ‘Mare II’) which divide at the horizon as we are enveloped in darkness by the setting of the sun.

Chelo maintains a balance throughout between the personal, the natural and the social in these works. It could be personal and cultural apocalypse that we are viewing. At times, his shapes suggest cityscapes or caverns yet, here too, our perceptions can be both of physical chaos and of the collapse of our interior world. As the exhibition catalogue suggests, this sequence of images is a migration ‘through a deep dark sea’, ‘a “passage” towards the unexplored, a metaphor to express our inability to fully know the result of our quests.’

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Extreme - Politicalamity.

Via Cordis - The Way of the Heart

Via Cordis – The Way of the Heart: Paintings by María Inés Aguirre (MIA)
Monday 8th – Friday 26th June, 10.00am – 4.00pm. St Stephen Walbrook, 39 Walbrook, London EC4N 8BN.
Exhibition reception - Monday 15th June, 6.30pm. All are welcome.

Each painting, María Inés Aguirre (MIA) says, “is a solar flare of colours” where every colour is an emotion. The critic Pierre Restany identified the distinctive quality of MIA’s art as having its roots in her emotional life which then manifests itself in “the exuberance and spontaneity of her painting.”

MIA has spoken of risk and adventure, and the resulting spontaneity, as being key to her art. Her work fuses colour, music, emotion and nature in “a sun-burst of colour, of joy and imagination.”

As Michael Hutchinson-Uzielli has noted, this means that "Mia's paintings map her emotions and imagination, with colour, texture and sinuous lines depicting the landscape of her thoughts.” Her work is, therefore, cartography of the heart or soul, as she, herself, has suggested in selecting the title ‘Via Cordis: The Way of the Heart’ for this show.

MIA says the following words of Paul Klee, from 1918, describe her own creative process: “Everything around me dissolves and interesting works emerge as if of their own accord. My hand is entirely the instrument of a distant sphere. It isnʼt my head that is working, but something else, something higher, something somewhere more remote. I must have great friends out there – obscure, but also brilliant - and theyʼre all very good to me.”

MIA’s identification with Klee’s description of creativity as involving a sense of giftedness from a higher force helps us in understanding the emotional impact of her work more fully. As a result, we could either see the emotions she maps in her work as being divinely inspired or think that by following and depicting those emotions she taps into the divine.

Her work has connected with traditional religious iconography, although not with traditional outcomes. Her ‘Via Crucis’, ‘Via Lucis’ and now ‘Via Cordis’ exhibitions have engaged with the imagery of the ‘Stations of the Cross’, the ‘Path of Light’ and now the ‘Way of the Heart’. Through these series she has reflected on emotions provoked by the Passion of Christ while seeing that narrative as also representing the different moods of modern man.

These are works to contemplate as, through energy of line and brilliance of colour (that “sun-burst of joy and imagination”), they refresh the soul.

MIA studied Fine Art at the University of Tucumán (Argentina) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. She has exhibited in Europe, Asia and the Americas and has shows later this year in Hong Kong, France and Argentina. Her work stands out for its colour, energy and spontaneity. Her fascination with the connections between music and colour led her to become the first visual artist in residence at Steinway & Sons, London, where she transformed a Steinway Model D concert grand piano into 'Dancing Soul'. She is represented by ArtMoorHouse - Moor House, 120 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5ET. Tel: +44(0)7502211914. Email: info@artmoorhouse.com. Web: http://www.artmoorhouse.com/.

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The Milgram Trio - Piano Trio in E minor Op 90 'Dumky'.

Via Cordis – The Way of the Heart

St Stephen Walbrook is to host an exhibition of ceramics & paintings by María Inés Aguirre (MIA) entitled 'Via Cordis – The Way of the Heart' (Monday 8th – Friday 26th June, 10.00am – 4.00pm). An exhibition reception is being held with MIA on Monday 15th June, 6.30pm, at which I will speak about 'Art as Gift'. All are welcome.

Each painting, MIA says, “is a solar flare of colours” where every colour is an emotion. The critic Pierre Restany identified the distinctive quality of MIA’s art as having its roots in her emotional life which then manifests itself in “the exuberance and spontaneity of her painting.”

MIA has spoken of risk and adventure, and the resulting spontaneity, as being key to her art. Her work fuses colour, music, emotion and nature in “a sun-burst of colour, of joy and imagination.”

As Michael Hutchinson-Uzielli has noted, this means that "Mia's paintings map her emotions and imagination, with colour, texture and sinuous lines depicting the landscape of her thoughts.” Her work is, therefore, cartography of the heart or soul, as she, herself, has suggested in selecting the title ‘Via Cordis: The Way of the Heart’ for this show.

MIA says the following words of Paul Klee, from 1918, describe her own creative process: “Everything around me dissolves and interesting works emerge as if of their own accord. My hand is entirely the instrument of a distant sphere. It isnʼt my head that is working, but something else, something higher, something somewhere more remote. I must have great friends out there – obscure, but also brilliant - and theyʼre all very good to me.”

MIA’s identification with Klee’s description of creativity as involving a sense of giftedness from a higher force helps us in understanding the emotional impact of her work more fully. As a result, we could either see the emotions she maps in her work as being divinely inspired or think that by following and depicting those emotions she taps into the divine.

Her work has connected with traditional religious iconography, although not with traditional outcomes. Her ‘Via Crucis’, ‘Via Lucis’ and now ‘Via Cordis’ exhibitions have engaged with the imagery of the ‘Stations of the Cross’, the ‘Path of Light’ and now the ‘Way of the Heart’. Through these series she has reflected on emotions provoked by the Passion of Christ while seeing that narrative as also representing the different moods of modern man.

These are works to contemplate as, through energy of line and brilliance of colour (that “sun-burst of joy and imagination”), they refresh the soul.

MIA studied Fine Art at the University of Tucumán (Argentina) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. She has exhibited in Europe, Asia and the Americas and has shows later this year in Hong Kong, France and Argentina. Her work stands out for its colour, energy and spontaneity. Her fascination with the connections between music and colour led her to become the first visual artist in residence at Steinway & Sons, London, where she transformed a Steinway Model D concert grand piano into 'Dancing Soul'. She is represented by ArtMoorHouse - Moor House, 120 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5ET. Tel: +44(0)7502211914. Email: info@artmoorhouse.com. Web: http://www.artmoorhouse.com/.

St Stephen Walbrook – Tel: 020 7626 9000. Email: office@ststephenwalbrook.net. Web: www.ststephenwalbrook.net.

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The Civil Wars - Sacred Heart.

Via Cordis - The Way of the Heart

'Via Cordis – The Way of the Heart' is an exhibition of ceramics & paintings by María Inés Aguirre (MIA) in June at St Stephen Walbrook (Monday 8th – Friday 26th June, 10.00am – 4.00pm). An exhibition reception is being held with MIA on Monday 15th June, 6.30pm, at which I will speak about 'Art as Gift'. All are welcome.

MIA studied Fine Art at the University of Tucumán (Argentina) and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. She has exhibited in Europe, Asia and the Americas and has shows later this year in Hong Kong, France and Argentina. Her work stands out for its colour, energy and spontaneity. Her fascination with the connections between music and colour led her to become the first visual artist in residence at Steinway & Sons, London, where she transformed a Steinway Model D concert grand piano into 'Dancing Soul'. 

Through her 'Via Crucis', 'Via Lucis' and now 'Via Cordis' series she has reflected on emotions provoked by the Passion of Christ while seeing that narrative as also representing the different moods of modern man. These are works to contemplate as, through energy of line and brilliance of colour, they refresh the soul.

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The Harbour Lights - Another Rainbow.

Mariano Chelo - Armageddon

I was at ArtMoorHouse this evening for the opening of  “Armageddon”, an exhibition of paintings by Mariano Chelo:

"In the Book of Revelation Armageddon is described as the final confrontation, the great battle between God and the False Prophet’s armies. A war necessitated by the fiendishly evil ambitions of humankind and their evil source of power.

While referring to a specific location, Armageddon carries also the profound symbolic meaning of Apocalypse, seen as the end of the world as we know it.

For Mariano Chelo Armageddon assumes a more personal interpretation, a meaning which is centred on the fear of demise. It is around this very concept that Mariano Chelo develops his entire artistic narrative. A deep inner conflict which is represented in his early works by a figurative and neo-cubist language dominated by heavy, insistent black brushstrokes.

A fear of the existential void appeased by the glimpse of traces of possible life in the final horizon, represented, as for the works on show, by an unlimited space where liquid transparent colours dominate and where red is paramount.

Mariano Chelo's human journey moves us and suggests to us possible existential pathways. It is an imaginary “migration”, a voyage through a deep dark sea, a “passage” towards the unexplored, a metaphor to express our inability to fully know the result of our quests.

It is the duty of the artist – as Chelo seems to suggest – to absorb the impurities and the pain of the human lives and to render them serene, purified to eyes of those who are able to decode the secret of art."

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Iona - And The Angels Dance.

Dialectical Materialism

In Dialectical Materialism, the current exhibition at ArtMoorHouse, three artists are showing, each of whom 'approach their work from different directions - intention towards intuitive form, light balanced with matter, representation of an abstract idea - but ultimately can find common ground.' Their focus in this exhibition is on dialogues - between the artists and their material, between the artists and the external world, or Nature, and also between the works shown - in order to 'give rise to new syntheses, new forms, new ideas.'

David Degreef-Mounier 'uses materials for their ability to be transformed, for their malleability and their metamorphic properties, in order to explore new landscape of the mind.' 'His research revolves around a Lacan quotation: "I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think". It translates in his work by a series of ongoing experiments, where, by rejecting expectations and preconceptions, he is able to accept what is happening here and now. He states: "Art is not simply an object, nor does it exist solely in the mind. Rather it is the relationship between the two”.'

Phil Dobson has developed a 'technique of layering and sanding acrylic, building up relief and then eroding it; which acknowledges, in the resulting flatness, 'a schematic way of representing the world.' His work combines 'amorphous form and precise delineation, the fluidity of paint with the rigour of geometry, the symbolic colour of maps with the luminosity of stained glass.'

Ileana Arnaoutou says that the stepping-stone of every work she creates 'is a walk, a treasure haunt in the city.' Discarded objects have always intrigued her creativity as, inspired by the culture of her country, she believes 'that every element has its own history and forms by that way its own character.' She feels she rescues 'objects and materials, bringing them back to life, by dismantling and combining them together, by lighting them up.' The ancient Egyptian ritual of weighing the heart has played a pivotal role in building up the conceptual aspect of her works. She says: 'Weighing the heart with a feather, for me is an amazing symbolic structure, which is mostly present in everything in life. My aim is to create and imagine scales, imagine the possible two sides, imagine their relationship.
My sculptures weight light and colour with matter, soul with human body. The "results” and combinations are infinite and that is what makes me want to create.'

The next exhibition at the Gallery will be Armageddon by Mariano Chelo, who 'has developed a surrealistic, abstract and cubistic oriented language to express his ... themes.' In 2003 he founded MAP, “Movimenti Artistici Periferici”, an art gallery/workshop where he exhibits personal and other artirts’ works from all over the world. Besides his painting production, his work includes: art installations, “action painting” performances and computerised art.

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Pēteris Vasks - The Fruit Of Silence.

Metaphysical symbol of purity and spiritual transformation

ArtMoorHouse is a creative space in a Norman Foster building at the heart of the City of London which provides the setting for a successful synergy between Art and Business.

Their current show is by Maria Ines Aguirre and is entitled The Element of Freedom. The element in question is water which is described as follows:

'Water is the carrier of nature, the pulse of life. Water changes itself info as many natures as the different places throng which it runs. Water does not resist, it flows, always going to where it wants to, so, in the end, nothing can resist it.

Metaphysical symbol of purity and spiritual transformation, water is the allegory of a new founded freedom; a freedom which is gained independently through the the ability to adapt to changing of the circumstances, whilst always remaining true to ourselves.'

Aguirre's work stands out for its colour, energy and spontaneity. Her fascination with the connections between music and colour led her to become the first visual artist in residence at Steinway & Sons, London, where she transformed a Steinway Model D concert grand piano into 'Dancing Soul'.

Pierre Restany wrote the following about Aguirre's work: 'We have become too intellectual in our ways of perceiving things. The dominance of rational thought over activities based on feeling prevents us from understanding the fullest dimension of any concept... For Mia, emotion is colour and colour is the virtual expression of emotions.'

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Joni Mitchell - Hejira.