The Art Gallery Zermatt had its opening night in December 2017. Lucas Davis, owner and aspiring artist is setting his foot in the artistic world. The gallery showcases art of Lucas Davis as well as art of a guest artist.
The Art Gallery has had an amazing guestlist so far: Elso Schiavo, Miranda Fierz, Helga Zumstein, Joelle Deroy, Hanne Mare, Marie-Christine Leddy, Esther Gischig, Tobias Weber and Ingrid Stübinger.
MAIN ARTIST
Born 1983, FSG Schule für Gestaltung Olten; F+F School for art and media design Zürich; The Florence Academy of Art, Italy; completed studies in City and Guilds of London Art School. Various group exhibitions and private assignments.
TRIBUTES – Once upon a time, the fear of evil demons and spirits, of the mischief-bringing, mysterious nature was so great that people avoided climbing to inhospitable and icy Alpine heights. It was not until curiosity and the urge to discover overcame all fears and taboos in the course of the 18th and especially the 19th century, and the mountains were mapped and explored, that men ventured into the mountains. And increasingly women as well. Despite societal norms and prejudices, they fearlessly walked through impassable terrain to the summits. Step by step – until the goal was reached and rewarded with overwhelming views of the beauty of the Alps. The relief pays great tribute to their courageous path of equality, which is far from over.
GUEST ARTIST
Born in 1964, studied art history, architecture and Egyptology at the University of Geneva, then at the Lausanne School of Art (ECAL). 1989 graduated with honors in painting, photography and xylography. Since then, over 100 solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Bernard Garo lives and works between Beijing, Paris and Nyon.
BRING US BACK THE BEAUTY –
Natural pigments, crushed stones, volcanic ash or sediments from the sea – Bernard Garo collects on his travels under glaciers, on sea cliffs or in the heart of volcanic craters precisely these ephemeral materials, exposed to wind, weather, ice and tides. Processed in painting, these form a kind of natural “identity skin” that carries the origins of humanity as much as the eternal cycles of erosion, time, transience, vulnerability of nature and man. In the midst of global climate change, which is also fatally affecting Garo’s native mountains and glaciers, the artist has been raising awareness for a better future for our beautiful earth with impressive mountain images for years.
Ingrid Stübinger
Artist
Born in 1961, left Germany in 1980 to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then studied Romance and German studies at the University of Tübingen, graduating with a state examination. At the same time continued her painting. Exhibitions in Paris, France, Germany and Switzerland from 2007. From 2015 numerous prizes and awards. Ingrid Stübinger lives and works in Paris.
OUVERTE D’ESPRIT – Easels in a pasture. Eyed by cows. With curious, open eyes, observing with a silent gaze. What do they grant the working artist, who enters into a kind of communication and close contact with the cows? How much time, what impulses do they give the painter to quickly grasp their personalities, their individual natures and inner energies, their beauties, before the animals start moving again, thus creating new situations? Ingrid Stübinger’s works reflect a rapid painting. But despite the impetuously wild, expressively applied complex colors, her emotional cow portraits, animal and landscape scenes exude an amazing serenity, a dignified calm. It is the artist’s open mind and free, unfiltered gaze that enable her, in her sensitive, respectful treatment of creature and nature, to grasp the essential and the essential. In the pasture just as in the studio in Paris.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
GATEKEEPER – Highly concentrated and yet gentle. Unpredictably aggressive, wild and yet playful. Mysterious, magical-satanic, powerful-spiritual and yet feared. For centuries, a diverse as well as contradictory symbolism has been imposed on these wonderful, lithely elegant predators with their particularly well-developed senses. Once revered by Egyptian culture as divine, sacred creatures, cats received the stigma of devilish evil in the Middle Ages and were persecuted. It is in this context that Lucas Davis, always fascinated by the nature of these animals, approaches them with great caution and sensitivity. Aware of those symbolic meanings, the artist has created a feline creature that reflects more than stubbornly individual behavior. In its maladjusted, freedom-loving wildness, it continues the long tradition of the ominous gargoyles/ gargoyles on the roofs and facades of cathedrals: from now on, the cat is also the protective guardian at the gateway to the spiritual world.
Tobias Weber
Artist
Born in 1974, studied architecture at the ETH Zurich and Lausanne as well as Georgia Tech in Atlanta USA, at the same time active as an artist, since 2005 solo and group exhibitions.
Group exhibitions, 2019 Art Prize of the Keller Wedekind Foundation Zurich, represented in various collections.
Lives and works as an artist and architect near Lucerne.
WINTER STORIES – Inconspicuous, unspectacular as well as trivial-banal processes and sceneries, which would hardly be worth a look, let alone a pictorial representation, fascinate Tobias Weber. Exactly there, where the “quite normal life” with all its weird, absurd as well as grotesque facets takes place, his view focuses, which finds exactly here his (winter) subjects: Whether scenic (Zermatt) motifs, everyday (winter) objects or differently acting people, the artist transforms them all by means of quick and loosely placed brushstrokes as well as elegant-shimmering color areas and shades into new, association-rich stories, which simply amaze in this visualization between fairy tale to curious and smiling.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
TREE OF LIGHTS – Grown upright and straight, a trunk with many leafless main branches and finely branched secondary branches symbolizes like a web the primordial being of a tree in “winter dress”, in which all growth is allowed to rest. Rigid and black, seemingly unapproachable, this bare tree appears up to the spherical crown and reflects precisely in this wintry shape and time a deep symbolism of pausing, drawing energy, inner preparation for new life forces, as they know it in the human cycle of life and death. The protective, firmly rooted tree with its soaring crown is a bridge between earth and sky, man and cosmos. As a “tree of light”, it will illuminate the dark winter time with radiance and warmth – and prepare us like a silent miracle for the times to come.
Esther Gischig
Artist
MONDES DE FLEURS (mysterieux) – Shimmering garden flowers that accompany precious light-filled arrangements with glasses, bottles or vases, in addition as a contrast typical plants of the mountain world in extreme magnification seduce our eyes to dive deep. We succumb to the fascination of Esther Gischig’s soft, velvety-smooth application of paint, which creates layer upon layer of oscillating, iridescent surfaces and magically luminous flowers like plants… and marvel as if we were seeing the world with its secrets and beauties for the first time.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
BERGWELT – a grandiose spectacle spreads out before our eyes: Wisps of fog and clouds reveal in a mysterious-mystical atmosphere an enormous mountain panorama framed by fir trees, wrapped in a dramatic-dynamic and seemingly constantly changing light and shadow. But despite all the dynamics, the current nuanced light object radiates a deep calm and dreamy harmony, supported by the color sepia, which is hardly used anymore. Its yellowish-brown effect is reminiscent of nostalgic photographs that symbolize the past as well as the transient. All this is a tribute to the powerful alpine world millions of years old, which beautifully stages itself – a small piece of eternity, which does not need us tiny humans at all.
Due to Covid-19, we unfortunately could not receive guests at our gallery. However, we can provide you with some photos to show what our exhibition looked like.
Marie-Christine Leddy
Artist
I call myself Marie; I work as an interior decorator. For years I furnished and decorated chalets in the Swiss Alps. Self-acclaimed artist since my youth, I do ceramics, porcelain painting, sculpture and mixed techniques as well as my paintings. I live in the 4 Vallées surrounded by our charming cows. My imagination always inspired to get started and go to work. A canvas, lots of cows and tubes of paint up to my ears…. Here are the results of my hours of enjoyment! It’s with a big “MOOOOO” that they thank you for taking the time to admire them!
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
Hanne Mare
Artist
Born 1992, Free Art Academy Hamburg (2017 / 2018) – Piotr Sonnewend, semester course Karl-Heinz Morscheck (2019), exhibitions in Australia, Germany, Poland, Denmark. Lives and works in Wassersleben (border D/DK) and at the Künstlerhaus Büdelsdorf.
SOLUTION AND PERFORMANCE – The young artist Hanna Mare has found her means of artistic expression in the material composition of epoxy resin, which is characterised by unique flow characteristics and at the same time challenges her: if it is necessary to maintain a balance between control and loss of control during the casting process, the flow process can only be influenced rudimentarily from the beginning of the hardening phase. Acceleration on the one hand and deceleration on the other, which interfere in a reciprocal relationship with the creation and shaping of the works with their relief-like surfaces. The resin flows into and over each other, in which definable forms and structures dissolve and dissolve, where supposedly hidden things are exposed, are reminiscent of fragmentary landscape depictions, often resembling a bird’s eye view. They enable the artist, who uses Lao-tzu’s teachings on Taoism as her central source of inspiration, to devote herself completely to the impulse in the here and now without boundaries, time and space.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
LIGHT AND SPACE – Philosophers as well as artists have always been fascinated by light as a medium of spiritual perception and artistic representation, which they have tried to portray using words and techniques. For on the one hand, light has mysterious properties, on the other hand, light itself is the medium that functions as a message carrier, can be perceived and experienced through space. As in the mysteriously iridescent light object by Lucas Davis, in which light itself is the creator of space and at the same time the carrier of many associations and stories: are we experiencing a natural spectacle here with dramatically staged thunderclouds in the sky or in the form of billowing waves of an ocean? Or rather a wild mountain landscape between eternal ice and jagged rocks? There are no limits to the thoughts – for the artist has deliberately refrained from using names and designations so that a free and unlimited dialogue with the relief dancing between light and shadow is possible at any time – a boundless dance to light, space, time and eternity.
Joëlle Deroy
Painting
Studied painting at UC Berkeley / California (1987) and in Paris (1991-1997), trained as a ceramist in Vallauris (2005-2007). Exhibitions of paintings, ceramics, drawings and photography in New York, Vallauris, Paris and London. Lives and works in London
MATTERHORN– In 1984, the French-Texan artist Joëlle Deroy visited Zermatt for the first time. Since then, she has drawn, painted, sketched and photographed the Matterhorn over 300 times. Joëlle Deroy reveals her love for and connection to the Matterhorn in rich, colour superimpositions, sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, that portray the mountain and its striking form layer by layer. The mountain gives her a creative energy: “It is a force with whom I find a connection to my own being, my own force.” With each work, with each canvas, she writes and rewrites her varied tales about the mountain in marvellous geometries and colour schemes – and the Matterhorn always determines the script. Deroy sees the melting pot of her artistic creativity in “The Concept of the Frontier” – straddling the border between Italy and Switzerland, this is precisely the concept that the majestic Matterhorn most impressively represents.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL –Hidden, encrypted worlds, which betray only an idea of the secrets and mysteries they conceal, have always fascinated artists. What is there to discover at the transition between real space and the immaterial world? How can transitions into other dimensions be rendered intelligible? And are there points where this world and the next meet? These are precisely the notions and questions that Lucas Davis explores in his new work. With an apparent breach of the wall and the integration of the artwork into its existing environment, the artist symbolises a mysterious intermingling of here and there, reality and transcendence, an oscillation between the material world and the non-physical / spiritual level. At the same time, he visualises the experiences of people from different cultures of a warm, bright light at the end of the tunnel in the face of death.
HELGA ZUMSTEIN
Painting
Born 1966, School of Design Bern in painting, photography and printing ; Since 2002 regular exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad; Member Visarte Switzerland, Professional Association of Visual Artists
SNAPSHOT – The scenes that Helga Zumstein has been publishing in small paintings week after week on Fridays since 2013 are like a picture diary: at first glance, they seem banal, direct, sensationless. But on closer inspection, they turn out to be unsparing documents of the times that hold up a mirror to us as viewers. And suddenly we recognize ourselves in them, our everyday life with its curiosities and absurdities, experience scenes up close and marvel that Helga Zumstein has taken nothing but our wondrous world under her brush. Her small as well as large colorful-expressive works are loving observations full of human impulses – but by no means banal.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures
WINTER SPIRIT – Winter is characterized by cold, snow and ice. It ensures freezing temperatures, freezes nature and forces it – but only apparently – to rest. But no sooner has the landscape disappeared under a thick layer of snow and millions of snow crystals have been transformed into wonderful shiny ice surfaces, than the spirit of winter awakens to new life and unites sporting activities with natural elements. The main work, the “Ice Hockey Player”, embodies wintry qualities par excellence: on the one hand, in his only partially transparent appearance and silver coloring, he is a wintry symbol of ice and cold; on the other hand, his athletic attitude makes him synonymous with energy, endurance, sports and team spirit – and the soul of winter is enriched by several facets.
MIRANDA FIERZ
Figurative painting
Born in 1987, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art & mediation at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Exhibitions since 2014.
SEIN – My current work combines portrait painting with the theme of identity issues in the context of the digital age. I am interested in interfaces where reality meets virtuality, familiar meets unfamiliar, staged meets natural identities. More and more, the virtual and the real and the real world are beginning to merge, giving rise to a new middle level. Genaudort I find foundations for my painterly explorations of the theme of identity. Parallel to this, the series “Haarsache” is created. Here, too, I deal with human identity and individuality in the combination of two personalities and their hair parts, which for me always includes the question: “Who am I and who else could I be?”
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures from bronze and wire
Mainly I find my inspiration deeply rooted in nature. With a free
mind and open soul, I step into the middle of the majestic mountain world with its magical forests and rushing streams. I lose myself, only to find myself dreaming again. I let my imagination run free between elements such as moods, incidence of light, colors, sounds, smells… and sensations evoked by them. I deepen and rise in the details and look for the shapes and patterns of the basic structure of the creation, which I need to then integrate them in my works and implement there
ELSO SCHIAVO
Figurative abstraction
Elso Schiavo was born in 1934 and trained as a graphic designer/advertiser. Then worked as art director in renowned agencies. Thirty years own advertising agency in Zurich. Numerous award-winning posters, one of which is in MoMA New York, in the graphics department. The artist has been painting for more than sixty years. Elso Schiavo has developed a distinctive style of painting with a high Wedererkennungswert. What begins as abstract expressionism must give way to a peeling out of the figurative form. His stylistic figures are surrealistic, just as the corresponding titles are surreal and almost unreal. His works are shown in Switzerland, as well as in Europe, USA and Asia.
LUCAS DAVIS
Sculptures from bronze and wire
My main source of inspiration is deeply rooted within nature. With an open mind and spirit I wander through the majestic mountains and their magical, tranquil forests, along their raging streams. Losing myself only to find myself dreaming. Unleashing my fantasy and letting it run wild in the midst of the elements and the sensations that they bring: the lighting, colors, sounds and smells. Intensifying and increasingly immersing myself in the details to find the core patterns, shapes and forms within the basic structure of creation that I need to realize and integrate into my works.