Artist : Zante Alexandria
Genre : Mono-prints
Period : December 17 till January 30
Everyday, 10.00AM till Midnight
Location : Pala Restaurant & Wine Bar
Jl. By Pass Ngurah Rai 121 XX
Tel: 283835
In a recent publication entitled “Art Now: 137 Artists at the Rise of the New Millennium”, it is refreshing to note that amongst all the Installation, Photographic, Multi-Media and Performance work documented there is still a small group of avant-garde artists who actually want to paint. As the boundaries of contemporary art are broadened it is easy to overlook and forget traditional painting and drawing techniques and skills. It is also reassuring to know that there are still avant-garde artists who appreciate and find inspiration in some of the major historical movements of Western Art. They are using themes from these movements to forge a painting style for the new millennium. A style that not only depicts contemporary society and culture but speaks to us through signified painting and drawing modes.
Zante Alexandria is an Irish artist, resident in Jimbaran, who displays in her exhibition, Breath of Life, a very firm understanding of traditional Western composition, movement and mood. Zante’s recent works are a series of developing pieces drawn from the streams of spiritualities of South-East Asia. Working from sketches done on site, Zante’s glorious Mono-prints endeavor to make “the invisible visible”. What are highly visible in these pieces are Zante’s formidable drafting skills and her subtle amalgamation and references to several historic Western Art Movements.
In the work “Spirit of the Wind” Zante’s line drawing swirls with sinuous grace depicting her Wind Muse’s flowing hair and fluttering drapery. The posture of the model, plus her ecstatic expression, immediately recalls similar subjects from the Art Nouveau. The three semi-nude male studies “Self, Heart, Spirit” display all the sensuousness, robustness and muscularity normally associated with the more earthy French Romantic paintings, and the “Sidharta Lovers Triptych” is voluptuous and erotic in the best Pre-Raphaelite tradition. Using references to European art styles has enabled Zante to re-interpret her Eastern spirituality for the Western eye. This is a spirituality that finds expression in physical sensuousness.
Zante’s art is basically aspiring to express something deeper than merely a recording of appearances. While using imaginative Western methods of illusionism, rather than naturalistic imitation, Zante’s art has been rationalized by the Eastern mind. Or perhaps Zante possesses an Eastern aesthetic that has been rationalized by Western technique? Either way, Zante’s art offers a world of emotions to the imagination of the viewer.
The textures of Zante’s prints are tactile, decorative, refined and sensuous. These Limited-Edition Hand-painted Giclee Mono-prints are created on Rice Paper pressed on Cement Panels. The pale-orange prints, with their black drawings highlighted with tarnished gold leaf, appear like antique parchments rescued from a decaying, baroque, 2nd Empire French salon.
The strength of this exhibition rests in Zante’s artistic skills and her discerning judgment. The French, as a nation, have always had a fascination for all things Asian. In fact, Japanese art had a significant impact on French Impressionism. To create works depicting Eastern spirituality in a French style strikes me as perversely witty, provocative and very contemporary. This is a charming and elegant show, and, apart from all that, it is also a damn sexy one as well – and when has that ever been a problem?
