Calvert 22 is the UK’s only non for profit foundation focused on contemporary art from Russia, CIS countries and Eastern Europe. Serving as both a venue for exhibitions and a space for educational programmes, Calvert 22 is a wonderful place for study, research and all those interested in the contemporary artwork of Eastern Europe.
IRWIN is a collective of artists formed in 1983 in Yugoslavia, the visual art branch of the NSK movement. It was the most influential art movement to emerge from the Balkan region in the latter half of the 20th Century.
On walking into the exhibition, the viewer may be a little overwhelmed at the amount of work to take in on the ground floor of the gallery. The photographs at the start of the show are surreally beautiful, almost cinematic in their intense narrative quality.
On the floor lies a stack of free copies of a red poster made by the NKS, beneath a framed newspaper clipping of it; it reads “Time for a New State, Some say you can find happiness there.” This introduction to the exhibition sets the tone for the entire show, which is politically charged, experimental, interactive and bold.
In keeping with their mission to promote art historical education, on view alongside the artwork are the original documents of the NKS, including their mission statement signed by all the artists and the passports they issued. The videos and small area in the front with a reading space and books makes the experience wholly satisfying, especially for those keen on the genre and history.The back wall is what truly appeals to the eye, with taxidermy animals sporadically hung in between paintings and sculptures. The installation is colourful and demonstrates the experimental nature of the group’s approach to painting. Figurative works are abstracted with impasto oil paint, housed in bulky and make- shift frames; Lenin emerges from a thick, brown mound of oil paint in one such impressive work and the use of deer, crosses and other religious symbols are repeated in several of the pieces.
The final part of the upstairs exhibition space is a display of the typewriter and other materials used by IRWIN, placed on a table in front of a large black and white photograph of the artists. Behind these timeless objects, which bring the entire show to life, are monitors playing videos on loop.
Downstairs, the sounds coming from an installation greet the viewer before any visuals. One wall is covered in NSK promotional posters, black and white, with stunning typography and a well-composed graphic layout. The works that occupy this small room include hand painted porcelain plates, a mannequin dressed in a suit and propped up against what seems to be part of a spaceship, and uniquely framed black and white portraits.
The art historical references are easily discerned, with the group regularly drawing on Romanticisim, Modernism and the work of Malevich to create their own daring and complex system of symbols and imagery. This exhibition is superbly curated and is a fascinating look at the response of contemporary artists towards Soviet social realism, religion and totalitarian political systems.
The exhibition is up until June 24th. http://www.calvert22.org/
Written By : Karen Shidlo [ Jester Jacques Gallery ]
