The City of Athens presents “The Excursion”, Christina Calbari’s new solo painting exhibition at the City of Athens Arts Center, from March 23 to May 14, 2023. The exhibition, organized by the City of Athens Culture, Sports and Youth Organisation (OPANDA), includes large-scale paintings and a series of charcoal drawings. The works play with light and the way it shapes the painting space.
The title of the exhibition (“The Excursion”) is an indirect reference to Anna Seghers’ novel “The Excursion of the Dead Girls”. For Calbari, this text was more a happy encounter than an inspiration to create her works. In Seghers’ approach, she finds an unexpected ally who helps her understand her work. The blurring of memory, this permanent fog in front of the narrator’s eyes of a one-day excursion by riverboat to the Rhine, is also reflected in the atmospheric images she paints.
Just as Seghers uses nature as a backdrop to discuss the function and possibilities of remembrance, so does Calbari perceive spaces in her works as backdrops that frame the emotion she attempts to capture. The sense of gesture and touch omnipresent in her large-size paintings changed the way she approaches painting. Working on these paintings, Calbari feels part of the painting space and becomes part of the narrative herself. Due to its large size, the “now” in her works is emphatically stated: one is standing in front of an existing painting space. The artist doesn’t just revive moments from the past, nor does she want to recreate figures as they were in the past. Instead, she looks to the past from the present, just like the narrator in “The Excursion of the Dead Girls,” looking back, trying to revive a memory.
The inner, psychic images of Calbari remind us of movie clips. Each painting is like a screen, a stage set, like the ones she has designed for theatre plays. Her landscapes have something artificial. The figures he paints are in a state of contemplation. It’s not a daydream. They are not related to the real, to the everyday. They belong to another sphere, a fictional space. They give the impression that they are lost (in their thoughts). They show no intention to escape. There is no romance. When she paints these thoughtful figures, Calbari tries to illuminate something rather than run from it.
The exhibition is curated by Christoforos Marinos, an art historian and curator of OPANDA’s exhibitions and events.
Exhibition Opening Date: Thursday, March 9, 18:00-21:00
Duration: March 23- May 14 2023
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 11:00 – 16:00, Saturday – Sunday 10:00 – 15:00,
The exhibition will be closed on Mondays
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