Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

This exhibition shows the artist’s newest work; a series of paintings and drawings taking the exploration of female sexual experience and power relations as a starting point. The gallery space itself is especially designed with red carpet transforming the space in a vibrant and intimate environment. The works are an outcome of Győri’s ongoing fascination with the interaction of the body and the psyche, expressed in bold works depicting affective sexual relationships. Citing Huib Haije van der Werf, ‘She had always been curious of the body and its interconnectivity. To its own nerves and feelings. Its capacity to generate affect. Instigate difference. How these could be read in its movements.’

On a large drawing, Loving Domination Portrait, we see repetitive impressionistic sketches of two women – with a large age difference – playing a sexual game with each other. The drawing was made while the artist was watching this couple by the action and making sketches at the same time. The sexual endeavors of the women center around domination and being dominated and are shown in a wide variety of studies; pencil drawings of bodies and heads. Different postures and details like fingers and tongues of the two women schematically painted in colorful watercolors in the margins of the paper. The sketches and paintings are not very detailed and seem more like a pseudo-tutorial, produced with the aim to get a deeper knowledge of bodily experiences in relation to physical interaction and sexual fantasy. The position of the artist is that of an observer, watching and depicting.

With the second series of drawings – on a much smaller format – the schematic figures seems replaced by little red creatures, sticking fingers and tongues in genitals, touching and licking each other with closed eyes. Instead of an observer the artist is the main instigator, creating a personal fantasy, little devils who won’t let loose of each other and demonizing a larger body. In some drawings the body is replaced by a bald head, eyes open, tongue sticking out. The creatures are on a sexual expedition, a hilarious procession discovering and exploring the body. An abstract ‘eye’ is part of the same being and watching. These obsessively drawn up sketches form together a visual diary. The large paintings follow a similar artistic route as the small drawings focused on one creature though amidst a yellow-reddish sphere.

Andrea Éva Győri studied at Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest and at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart (DE). She was artist in residence at the Jan Van Eyck in Maastricht (NL) and winner of the Esterházy Art Award 2020 (HU). A selection of recent shows where she has presented her work were in 2019 at Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin (DE); Witte de With Rotterdam (NL); Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht (NL); IKOB – Museum of Contemporary Art Eupen (BE) solo. In 2018 Haus der Kunst, Munich (DE) and Vleeshal, Middelburg (NL) solo; In 2017 Grimmuseum, Berlin (DE) solo; In 2016 MANIFESTA 11, Zürich (CH); In 2015 Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (KR); Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (TW); /si:n/ Biennial for Videoart and Performance, Ramallah; Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (DE); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (DE); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (DE); Videonale15 Bonn; Seoul Art Space-Seogyo, Seoul (KR).
Upcoming shows in 2020 are at Kunstverein Ludwigshafen (DE), Ludwig Museum, Budapest (HU) and FUTURA Projects, Prague (CZ) (solo show).