Monday, June 29, 2009

Beyond the sums

Brazilian Artist Stephan Doitschinoff or "CALMA," often uses biblical themes and sensibilities, like the highly symbolic work of the Byzantines and early Gothic...each image has a reason, a symbolic message to the viewer...Calma's work departs from those kinds of works by choosing imagery from the street, juxtaposing it with decorative elements and stylized commercial line quality...this piece does an excellent job of taking the dirty and fragmented urban jungle and places it the context of higher art...

Often times high art has an error of snobbery too it, as if it cannot be reached by the common person, but the combination of accessible religious imagery, pattern and smart formal arrangement make this piece a great success...the background has a quiet undulating feeling...soft but complex...and the action of the figurative element in the foreground uses strong angles and geometries to create drama in contrast to the mostly mono-chromatic backdrop...the touches of white under the figure and in the red environment carries the eye around and ties this piece strongly together...

I enjoy the religious references and the contemporary context...the whole says a great deal more than the sum of its parts...

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