For this edition of Art Dubai, MARUANI MERCIER Gallery proposes three of our internationally celebrated artists invigorated by nature to express their vision on the world, Ross Bleckner, Tony Matelli, and Arne Quinze.
Ross Bleckner found peace and strength in the beauty and fragility of flowers when AIDS struck the art world, and they have been a returning topic throughout his career. Bleckner’s flower paintings prompt meditation on birth, death and the fragility of life, vanity and beauty which always end up dying, as well as life’s organic power and eroticism.
Tony Matelli’s perspectival reorientations of objects and ideas reach their apex in the Arrangement series, where bouquets of flowers are upended and reified into miraculous and meticulously constructed sculptures. These sculptures are reinstated upon the pedestal as if the laws of nature containing them were intact— yet inverted —around them. Several works from Matelli’s Weeds series sprout from the space between our stand walls and floors, a testimony of the perseverance of nature. All Matelli’s works are traditional cast bronze and exquisitely painted.
The electric bright colours and joyful explosion of flowers paintings from Arne Quinze reflect the unbridled beauty of the natural environment. Through his work, Quinze reflects on todays growing differences between the diversity of nature and the ongoing expansion of monotone cities. Driven by the force of nature, he hopes to guide cities towards a better future by making living environments more human and green. Consequently, Quinze is exhibiting a series of six Chroma Lupine sculptures on view at The Foundry in Downtown Dubai during the fair.
