The Contemporary Art Modern Project is pleased to announce their participation in VOLTA Art Fair, in Basel, Switzerland, June 10 - 16, 2024. Making this their first venture into the European art market, The CAMP Gallery is poised and ready to welcome new collectors and visitors to their stand: A01 at the fair. Keeping in mind the idea of a ‘Volta’ as a turn, The Contemporary Art Modern Project, along with Stefano Ogliari Badessi, Elena Monzo, Silvia Trappa, Dominik Schmitt, Hans Withoos, Johnny Ramstedt, Manju Shandler, Liz Leggett, JAS and Karola Pezarro are doing just that - taking a turn - one from expectation, in many ways deconstructing the present. The present we are reacting to is the one we are all very much weighed down in: Wars, Politics and a loss of tolerance towards one another. Our exhibiting artists offer our stand guests a release from all the above by either breaking rules, suggesting mantras, playing with portraiture in many mediums, or just abandoning this world and traveling to an imagined world where difference is beautiful.
Stefano Ogliari Badessi, known mainly for his oversized sculptural work, either inflatable or sculptural brings with him to the fair members of his Trabubu tribe, traveling through the borders from Italy to Switzerland bringing to the stand beings that are nomadic, like the artist, but resilient in their world view that beauty withstands all obstacles. Elena Monzo focuses on and creates women in her works both assertive and playful as they respond to the world around them offering a carnivalesque direction towards securing a woman’s place in a world still attempting control. Often focusing on the child, whether literally or the child still residing in all, Silvia Trappa’s additions to the stand bring one face to face to an innocence adorned in nature, with a nature that soothes what appears to be suggested harm from the world - from the adult world that persistently damages the child’s world. Known for his artistic language in his many portraits, Dominik Schmitt, in his works for the stand, deconstructs how he works on canvas presenting works on paper overflowing in color and somehow likening themselves to iconography redefining the symbolism of such works, now in Schmitt’s own artistic language. One thing very noticeable in the Netherlands is the artwork and the focus, historically, on bringing the viewer inside a composition, a room, a moment, just as one lets the light in after a long dark winter. Hans Withoos, instead of focusing on the inside, brings his lens and his view to the outside world, often opening the window from inside to the outside. In so doing he brings forth moments that were just as personal as art in the past, but these moments of his suggest that we, the viewer need to see more, look at more, and in so doing - appreciate not only the beauty of the nature surrounding - but also how we can add to this beauty. Known often for his explorations into monochromatic fields, Johnny Ramstedt does bring that plane to the stand but also and again limiting his color palette heralds mantras that inspire but also reflect a life, a society, a world that has lost patience, has lost the ability to ignore what is happening, how life has changed. JAS, in his portraits focuses on line and seemingly hides expression - but it is the absence of expected facial patterns that reinforces and calls the viewer to stand in front of the works - what is the subject not allowing us to see in their eyes? Works like the work of JAS, asks the viewer to invite both imagination and humanity as it is both that can lead to a better now - a now void of assumption. Turning a practice on its head is a form of protest, and protest is a recurring theme in the work of Manju Shandler. Using transfer, texture and assemblage Shandler tackles topics ranging from the climate, politics and the burden of a history that does not teach, one that we ignore. Bringing forth these topics and more Shandler argues, through beauty, the fragility we all wade through because of what infringes on one’s ability to be a better participant in this global world. Liz Leggett breaks through color and line and collages works that dwell in tension, frazzling and bewildering batches of color and yet leads the viewer down a very particular and planned map towards the stimulation of faculties resplendent in the imagination. Speaking on Karola Pezzaro’s response and turn, we stand before thoughts floating and flitting about - as seen through the fiber portraits, all different, all burdened, all watching and are left with a myriad of thoughts - each unique, each alone, but also each connected and dependent on the one next to them. This interdependency on one another to either create and maintain the positive is linked by the same fragile thread that the negative currently holds sway. Looking through this stand, the resounding response to the world we have fashioned is that we need to rebook this, refine and define a path forward that focuses on the beauty, the individual and a charity between you, me and the entire human population.
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