Easter at OAC
For Easter this year we decided to out on a special exhibition of our own. We spent a few days digging out older artworks from our collection and a few days of re-hanging. We decided to show some works from our artist Carlos Capelán who is very much relevant at the moment with up-coming exhibitions in both Australia as well as two important shows here in Sweden, in Stockholm and in Malmö. It was a small tribute to Malmö Konstmuseum which had just acquired 9 of his works from the 80´s and 90´s.
The re-hanging also connected to our collections of tribal and pre-Columbian art as their primary criterion in selecting pieces is aesthetic merit – the related aspects of technical quality, formal organization, and expressive power. Especially we looked at our pre-Columbian pieces and we were struck by the sophistication of abstraction found in so many of the traditions which, in general terms, have helped us see European and American painting and sculpture with a renewed and nuanced appreciation. Looking at the special installation of Capelán’s work gave us a floating feeling and a kind of special experience of its firm base in the times today but with a wind of historical influences being intertwined. The whole presentation became vivid and constantly moving when you walked in such close intimacy with Capeláns work.
Above. Carlos Capelán, the master of drawing figures from his large figure language and the generous use of colours, here went almost minimalistic when he did two stylistic portraits in black on a monocrome blue background – from The Olsson Art Collection, “This meets that Blue”, acrylic on canvas, 2009, 180 x 140 cm.
Above. One (of two) experimental works by Carlos Capelán from The Olsson Art Collection, “Untitled”, mixed media and mother´s milk on canvas, 1997, 146 x 197 cm.
