VALENTINA SUPANZ MARINIĆ
TOXICITY
Karas Gallery
May 12 – May 24, 2020

Following all recommendations of the National Civil Protection Headquarters, an exhibition by Valentina Supanz Marinić entitled Toxicity, will be opened at the Karas Gallery (Zvonimirova 58) on May 12, 2020. The opening will be virtual and will be viewable on the HDLU Facebook page. The exhibition will be open for public from May 13th. 

“The phantasmagorical scenes of landscape, almost de Chirico-like, metaphysical, devoid of life and existence, unfold before us in Valentina Supanz Marinić’s works. This is a fictitious and inhospitable world, suffocated by neon smoke and heavy, toxic air. A post-apocalyptic scenario, reminiscent of the scenes from Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. A world without the sun, dark and cruel, destroyed by some unnamed cataclysm that we are painfully aware of. The repertoire of motifs is very similar in all her works. Nature becomes unnatural, and people, in overalls and face masks, are merely symbolic figures of doom. The post-apocalyptic world slaps us in the face with neon colours that the artist uses to further emphasize this toxicity. The sky turns yellow, water purple and green, and vegetation dies off or becomes strange. The electrified horizons of silence fade at dusk (of humanity?), whereas people appear only from behind, in clothes that clearly show that they found themselves in a world in which they would not be able to survive without the protective equipment.. (…)

(…) The observer becomes fully aware of the disturbing truth about the alarming state of the environment, which is something we hear about in the media. However, given the current situation with the Coronavirus epidemic, the observer is also concerned whether we are facing the collapse of civilizational norms due to some huge crisis and whether an average homo vulgaris will manage to cope with it or are we facing extinction. This makes Valentina’s work very topical and engaged, and it clearly states that art cannot, and should not, be detached from reality, immune to serious issues, and enclosed within the studio walls.”

From preface, written by Nika Šimičić

Preface

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Valentina Supanz Marinić was born in 1986 in Zagreb. In 2012, she graduated Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, under mentorship of Zlatko Kauzlarić – Atač. She has exhibited in several solo and numerous group exhibitions, of which we highlight: the 2nd and 5th Biennial of Painting (HDLU, Zagreb); New Croatian Realism (Glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb); and Fountain Art Faire at Armory Arts Week (Manhattan, New York, 2014). The Erste Fragments Foundation awarded her the ransom prize for the painting My Jungle in 2013. She is an illustrator of several children’s picture books. She is a member of the HDLU and HZSU.

 

Organizer:

Supported by:

   

 

Working hours:

The exhibition will be open from May 13 until May 24, 2020

 

*Remark*

At the entrance to the Gallery there is a bottle with a disinfectant for visitors, which are obliged to disinfect their hands when entering the Gallery.
The security guard at the entrance to the Gallery will have a protective mask and gloves and control the number of visitors. The Gallery can hold up to 5 people at a time.
Visitors are required to maintain a distance of 2 meters.
Touching the exhibits is not allowed.
Doorknobs and any other surfaces that are frequently touched by visitors will be regularly disinfected.