New Year Exhibition

Carlos Ramirez

Carlos Ramirez is a Cuban born painter raised in Miami, whose work is a visual blog of the world around him. He cherishes the outdoors and nature – where all of his work begins. Rather than replicating nature, Ramirez records his connection to it. He is drawn to its expanse, color and all encompassing aspect that makes us feel small. He seeks to explore nature in its totality, not merely the visual aspect, but how it speaks to him.

Color is an integral part of Ramirez’ work . He was a fashion designer for his own brand for many years. That experience, coupled with having been raised in the tropics, shaped his perception and use of color.

Carlos Ramirez’ work plays the edge between abstraction and representational. Ink sketches within the work depicting leaves, petals, stones loosely reference nature, while the underlying structure and palette remain rooted in abstraction. This contrast between the recognizable and the obscure allows for the viewer to connect with the work on various levels.

Go to the artist's page here: https://www.cadogancontemporary.com/artist/carlos-ramirez/

Francesco Moretti

The themes that Francesco Moretti addresses are drawn from nature: the human body, plants, and animals. He doesn’t seek to reinvent their forms, rather he aims to rediscover them, to capture their essence. He works through filters: first his memory, then the various drawings, sketches and models, long before tackiling the metal. Taking a step back from the subject is necessary. This maturation allows him to keep only what is essential, the minimum required to understand the subject. The blunt simplification thus takes on its full meaning: the subject is gradually relieved of any superfluous elements which do not evoke the primary meaning of things. Only then is it time to sculpt.The relationship that Moretti has developed with metal is atypical. Whilst others work the material through physical confrontation – compression, hammering – or choose to push it to its limits until it loses all its substance – and melts – he chooses to accompany it. This understanding of the material results in a self-evident gesture. Folded, bent like simple paper, the metal becomes light and delicate. Gradually, the sculptor’s work fades, the subject regains its central place.As soon as the original rectangle gains volume and curves, the subject is born from an abstract metal sheet. And that is precisely what Moretti reveals through his sculptures: figures under construction captured in the moment when the subject becomes intelligi- ble and palpable. The imprisoned void between the metal sheets becomes a component of the sculpture, just like the lines drawn by the edges of the deformed plate make up an autonomous and dynamic design. But even if the forms can liberate themselves, they never lose their meaning.Beyond hand-crafted virtuosity and decorative indulgence, Francesco Moretti seeks to render accessible, without artifice, the process of the construction of the Form.

Go to the artist's page here: https://cadogancontemporary.com/artists/francesco-moretti/

Ian Rayer-Smith

Ian Rayer-Smith is fascinated by the act of painting, which connects us back to mankind’s very first forms of expression. His work explores the purpose of painting itself.

Rayer-Smith’s paintings are influenced both by the emotional rawness and mark making of Abstract Expressionism, and by the balance, light and movement of Renaissance com- positions. His work aims to reach a classical balance using new visual paths, in an attempt to explore the purpose of painting itself.

Rather than providing overt statements or narrative pointers towards a clearly defined an- swer, the artist uses his work to pose a series of questions. There is stronger satfisfaction in the suggestion and exploration of movement and colour, rather than the assertion of an esthetic answer to human expression.

Go to the artist's page here: https://www.cadogancontemporary.com/artists/ian-rayer-smith/

Maximillian Verhas

Born in Essen in 1960, Maximilian Verhas studied Painting and Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg from 1981 until 1986 before taking up Sculpture at the University of the Arts in Berlin from 1986 until 1990. He began creating his so-called Rollkörper, i.e. rolling bodies, around the end of his degree.

With these Rollkörper, Verhas explores the traditional definition of sculpture, but overtuns it by creating a moving multi-factetted work whose identity changes with its position. The concept of mutliple perspectives is challenged and redifined. The viewer cannot only see the customary exterior sides of the sculpture; the under and upper sides can also be examined alternately. Verhas redefines the object not as a predetermined form viewed at different angles, but as a varying identity defined by its viewpoint and position.

Go to the artist's page here: https://www.cadogancontemporary.com/artist/maximillian-verhas/

Ilana Manolson

Trained as a botanist, Ilana Manolson has an intimate and profound knowledge of the natural world. Her work stems both from her observations and outdoor paintings, and from her recollections painted in the studio. Manolson intergates precise observations of plants and organic matter into ethereal compositions, suggesting the fluidity between moment and memory. Combining intricate details with large, fluid brushstokes, the artist creates a strong yet delicate evokation of the life and light in nature.

Ilana Manolson’s work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, DeCordova Museum, and Fuller Museum of Art. After years exhibiting in the USA and internationally, she will be presenting her first solo show with Cadogan Contemporary in London in April.

Go to the artists page here: https://www.cadogancontemporary.com/artist/ilana-manolson/