Events/Openings

Nika Fontaine's Glitter Paintings
Solo Exhibition at SomoS Art House

Opening Friday, December 12th, 7pm
Duration December 13th to 20th, Tues-Sat 14h - 19h

-- English (German Follows) --

Nika Fontaine (aka Nicolas Fontaine)’s glitter paintings on view at the Götter Glamor exhibition at SomoS Art House Berlin December 2014 titillatingly contrast lyrical spirituality with glamor and kitsch.

The works by the Berlin-based Canadian artist are presented in an organically lit installation consisting of glitter canvasses and objects which emphasize Fine Art Painting’s roots in cult, myth and religion. The work artfully synthesizes a diverse array of spiritual influences such as Canadian Aboriginal Art, Catholicism, Pagan Mysticism, Buddhism, Psychedelia or Voodoo.

In the artist’s recent works, several art world conventions are being casually and playfully subverted. Nika’s Glam Rock-influenced persona and use of glitter as artistic tool defy gender and taste clichés that still haunt the realm of Fine Art Painting. In an art context, glitter was first massively used in the Performance-art of The Cockettes and Leigh Bowery. Its more current use includes Craft-, US-West Coast- and Queer art. Fontaine’s use of glitter initially stems from a practical need of the artist to heighten the intensity of color however, rendering it hyper-real and otherworldly. Using glitter means that a sense of meditation and hypnosis is present both in the painstakingly slow production and the precarious reception of the paintings. An element of interactiveness is part of their viewing, as they look different depending on viewpoint or time of day.

Historically, a main reference to Fontaine’s glitter paintings are Kandinsky’s later painting which used more isolated shapes, and were painted with sand mixed into the paint. Baroque ornamentation, New Age’s obsession with stones, and the poetics and spirituality of Buddhist Mandala sand painting are referenced in the technique as well.

Fontaine’s use of bad taste and kitsch has historic precursors; in “Vache” art as practiced by painters like Magritte and Picabia, and in 1980’s German artists’ love of “Ekeltechniken” (“disgusting techniques”) of Polke, Trockel and Dokoupil, and Post-Punk art stances of Kippenberger and the Oehlen brothers.

How much irony is in play remains to be seen however. After all, a refreshing recent quote has Fontaine aiming “to create artistic psychotropics that lead to transcendence and happiness” and to be earnestly inspired by dreams, programmatically allowing a child-like innocence in the creative process. This kind of “New Sincerity” seems to be looking for a backdoor leading out of the locked and haunted house of clever Post-Modernism.

Read More at: http://www.somos-arts.org/goetter-glamor/
Available in German and English

--DE--

Nika Fontaine (aka Nicolas Fontaine)’s neuere Glitter-Gemälde werden Dezember 2014 in der Goetter Glamor Einzelausstellung des Kunsthauses SomoS gezeigt. Nika Fontaine’s Arbeiten verbinden lyrische Spiritualität mit Glamour.

In Goetter Glamor werden Fontaine’s Werke in Form einer organisch belichtete Installation gezeigt, bestehend aus Gemälde und einige skulpturale Komponenten. Die Installation verweist auf die Wurzeln von Malerei und Skulptur in Religion, Mythos und Kult, und mit Glitter als Material, auf Trash, wo doch das Deutsche Wort “Götter” auf Englisch wie “gutter” (gosse) klingt.

In Kanada geboren und seit einige Jahren in Berlin lebend, greift Fontaine in Götter Glamor gekonnt gleich eine ganze Reihe von spirituelle und ästhetische Themen auf, wie Kanadische indianische Kunst, Katholizismus, heidnischer Mystizismus, Buddhismus, Psychedelia oder Voodoo. Diese Einflüsse werden verarbeitet zu ein phantasievolles, ambivalentes geistiges Gebilde dessen Elemente eine sehr persönliche und bewußt un-ironische Haltung und auch viel Humor aufzeigen.