Communiqué: Exhibition GÉZA HERMANN For immediate release
RÉFLEXIONS ALCHIMIQUES
From April 3rd to May 10th 2014
Opening April 2nd, 5 PM to 8 PM
‘’ Knowing yourself is the base of any alchemical tradition.’’
Paracelse (Swiss alchemist, astrologist and doctor. 1493-1541)
Galerie Bernard is presenting, from April 3rd to May 10th 2014, the recent production of the Hungarian artist Géza Hermann. Experimenting with multiple mediums and techniques, Hermann explores the symbolic of the alchemical language as a mirror of his artistic practice. The exhibition includes three bodies of work: Les cornues, Laboratorium and Alchimie abstraite.
In the continuity of his previous series Alchemical Studies (1994), the representation of vessels, alembics and retorts embodies both the scientific and philosophic vocations of alchemy. Tools, these are also impressions that Hermann transposes on canvas through a mesh of lines, forms and colors.
The artist, while detailing his practice refers to alchemy as a psychological science: ‘’ The present work examines through various materials, processes and observations, reactions in my personal laboratory. The artist’s role is analogous to this concept – for he is acting as a transformer and transmitter of the potential of the primitive matter, which, when impressed with forms, comes into existence in the work of art. ‘’
Géza Hermann’s works remind us of the practices of his role models: Wassily Kandinsky and Richard Poussette-Dart. If attentive, the visitor is invited to Hermann’s hidden and interior world revealed by luminescent pigments and black light. Between a concrete affirmation of the self and its immateriality, the artworks presented at Galerie Bernard are illustrating the artist’s personal journey.
Géza Hermann was born in Budapest, in 1949. In 1956, he and his family fled Hungary for Canada where he developed his passion for art. Since childhood, the artist is fascinated and drawn to the ways forms change as a result of heat and motion. He talks about a glass blower whose workshop was not so far from where he grew up. When he turned 16, he began to study with the Russian painter Valentine Firsoff Shebaeff. Bachelor in Fine Arts from Concordia University (1986), he worked and studied with Guido Molinari and Yves Gaucher. The artist explores themes such as life and land. He works with different mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture and land art. Throughout his prolific career, he exposed his works both in Canada and Hungary.