Attila Richard Lukacs: Your Name Here
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Herringer Kiss Gallery 101-1615 10 Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta T3C 0J7
Opening Reception Thursday, September 12th from 5 to 8 pm.
Artist in Attendance.
The Herringer Kiss Gallery is proud to present “Your Name Here” by acclaimed International artist, Attila Richard Lukacs. This exhibition will showcase two series of collage paintings done simultaneously between 2013 and 2014 titled Proscenium and Camp David. The many influences, references and iconography in these works are expertly woven together to form a tapestry of art history and social/political realities.
A proscenium is the frame device for stages in theatres through which the audience views the theatrical performance. "It can be considered a social construct which divides the actors and their stage-world from the audience which has come to witness it.” – Wikipedia.
In these works, Attila incorporates framing and theatrical devices in his compositions and includes fabric, braiding, fringe and text to create works that allude to world stages, performances and what has been curated for public viewing. References to Beethoven’s Ghost Trio (which was so named because the score is thought to have been a concept for a Macbeth Opera) can be seen in the ghostly profiles and the repetition of imagery. The paintings and the studio become the stage for the ghost trio. The Camp David works are in essence, concrete poetry. The Xeroxed poster-like text is deconstructed and reconstructed onto works to become more than mere words but symbol. The image of Michelangelo’s David alongside the repeated text CAMP DAVID, DAVID CAMP, conjures notions of everyday heroics against larger Machiavellian forces and also as a symbol for Queer identity. The other most obvious reference is to the US Presidential retreat and so Lukacs has woven interesting and meaningful links between these works of stages, performances, open and closed curtains and political machinations. As Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage”.