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 und Esther Gischig.
MAIN ARTIST
Born 1983, FSG Schule für Gestaltung Olten; F+F School for art and media design Zürich; The Florence Academy of Art, Italy; abgeschlossenes Studium in City and Guilds of London Art School. Various group exhibitions and private assignments.
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.
GUEST 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.
Esther Gischig
Künstlerin
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
Skulpturen
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
Künstlerin
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
Skulpturen
Hanne Mare
Künstlerin
Geboren 1992, Freie Kunstakademie Hamburg (2017 / 2018) – Piotr Sonnewend, Semesterkurs Karl-Heinz Morscheck (2019), Ausstellungen in Australien, Deutschland, Polen, Dänemark. Lebt und arbeitet in Wassersleben (Grenze D/DK) und im 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
Skulpturen
Born 1983, FSG Schule für Gestaltung Olten; F+F School for art and media design Zürich; The Florence Academy of Art, Italy; abgeschlossenes Studium in City and Guilds of London Art School. Various group exhibitions and private assignments.
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
Malerei
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
Skulpturen
Born 1983, FSG Schule für Gestaltung Olten; F+F School for art and media design Zürich; The Florence Academy of Art, Italy; abgeschlossenes Studium in City and Guilds of London Art School. Various group exhibitions and private assignments.
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
Malerei
Geboren 1966, Schule für Gestaltung Bern in Malerei, Fotografie und Druck ; Seit 2002 regelmässige Ausstellungen im In- und Ausland; Mitglied Visarte Schweiz, Berufsverband bildender Künstler
SNAPSHOT – Wie ein Bilder-Tagebuch fügen sich die Szenen aneinander, die Helga Zumstein in kleinen Gemälden Woche für Woche seit 2013 immer am Freitag veröffentlicht: auf den ersten Blick erscheinen sie banal, direkt, sensationslos. Doch entpuppen sie sich beim genauen Hinschauen als schonungslose Zeit-Dokumente, die uns als Betrachtende den Spiegel vorhalten. Und plötzlich erkennen wir uns darin selber, unseren Alltag mit seinen Kuriositäten und Absurditäten, erleben Szenerien hautnah mit und staunen, dass Helga Zumstein nichts anderes als unsere wundersame Welt unter den Pinsel genommen hat. Ihre kleinen wie grossen farbintensiv-expressiven Werke sind liebevolle Beobachtungen voller menschlicher Regungen – aber keinesfalls banal.
LUCAS DAVIS
Skulpturen
WINTER SPIRIT – Kälte, Schnee und Eis prägen den Winter. Er sorgt für klirrende Temperaturen, lässt die Natur erstarren und zwingt sie – aber nur scheinbar – zur Ruhe. Doch kaum ist die Landschaft unter einer dicken Schneeschicht verschwunden und Millionen von Schneekristallen haben sich in wundervolle glänzende Eisflächen verwandelt, erwacht der Geist des Winters zu neuem Leben und vereinigt sportliche Aktivitäten mit Naturelementen. Das Hauptwerk, der «Eishockey-Spieler», verkörpert winterliche Eigenschaften par excellence: zum einen ist er in seiner nur teilweise transparenten Erscheinung und silbernen Färbung ein winterliches Symbol für Eis und Kälte, zum anderen wird er durch seine sportliche Haltung zum Synonym für Energie, Ausdauer, Sport- und Team-Geist – und die Seele des Winters ist um einige Facetten reicher.
Dr. Martina Kral, Kuratorin
MIRANDA FIERZ
Figürliche Malerei
Geboren 1987, abgeschlossenes Studium mit Bachelor in Kunst & Vermittlung
an der Hochschule für Design&Kunst Luzern. Ausstellungen seit 2014.
SEIN – Mein aktuelles Schaffen verbindet die Porträtmalerei mit der Thematik von Identitätsfragen im Kontext des digitalen Zeitalters. Mich interessieren Schnittstellen, bei denen Realität auf Virtualität, Vertrautes auf Unbekanntes, inszenierte auf natürliche Identitäten treffen. Immer mehr beginnen sich die virtuelle und reale
Welt miteinander zu verschmelzen und lassen eine neue mittlere Ebene entstehen.
Genaudort finde ich Grundlagen für meine malerischen Auseinandersetzungen zum Thema Identität. Parallel dazu entsteht die Serie «Haarsache».
Auch hier setze ich mich mit der menschlichen Identität und Individualität in der Kombination zweier Persönlichkeiten und ihrer Haarpartien auseinander, die für mich stets die Frage beinhaltet: «Wer bin ich und wer könnte ich sonst noch sein?»
LUCAS DAVIS
Skulpturen aus Bronze und Draht
Hauptsächlich finde ich meine Inspiration tief verwurzelt in der Natur. Mit freiem
Geist und offener Seele trete ich mitten in die majestätische Bergwelt mit ihren magischen Wäldern und reissenden Bächen. Ich verliere mich, nur um mich dann träumend wiederzufinden. Meiner Fantasie lasse ich freien Lauf zwischen Elementen wie Stimmungen, Lichteinfall, Farben, Geräuschen, Gerüchen… und Empfindungen, die durch diese hervorgerufen werden. Ich vertiefe und steigere mich in die Details und suche nach den Formen und Mustern der Basisstruktur der Kreation, die ich benötige, um sie dann anschliessend in meinen Werken zu integrieren und dort umzusetzen
ELSO SCHIAVO
Figurative Abstraktion
Elso Schiavo geboren 1934. Ausbildung zum Grafiker / Werber. Danach in renommierten Agenturen als Art Director tätig. Dreissig Jahre eigene Werbeagentur in Zürich. Zahlreiche prämierte Plakate, davon ist eines im MoMA New York, in der Grafikabteilung. Der Kunstschaffende malt schon seit mehr als sechzig Jahren. Elso Schiavo hat einen unverwechselbaren Malstil entwickelt mit einem hohen Wedererkennungs-wert. Was als abstrakten Expressionismus beginnt muss einer Herausschälung der figurativen Form weichen. Seine Stilfiguren sind surrealistisch, wie auch die dazugehörenden Titel surreal und fast unwirklich präsent sind. Seine Werke werden in der Schweiz, wie auch in Europa, USA und Asien gezeigt.
LUCAS DAVIS
Skulpturen aus Bronze und Draht
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.