CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTIONS

Ludgero Almeida, 2016

Gonçalo Mabunda (b. Maputo 1975) is interested in the collective memory of his country, Mozambique, which has only recently emerged from a long and terrible civil war. He works with arms recovered in 1992 at the end of the sixteen-year conflict that divided the region.

In his sculpture, he gives anthropomorphic forms to AK47s, rocket launchers, pistols and other objects of destruction. While the masks could be said to draw on a local history of traditional African art, Mabunda's work takes on a striking Modernist edge akin to imagery by Braque and Picasso. The deactivated weapons of war carry strong political connotations, yet the beautiful objects he creates also convey a positive reflection on the transformative power of art and the resilience and creativity of African civilian societies.

Lawrence Carroll is an Australian-born American painter. He is best known for is deconstructed abstract “table paintings” made from scrap wood and cardboard, sculpturally arranged and rearranged as the artist works. The surfaces of Carroll’s work often appear monochromatic, but upon closer inspection a complex network of fractures and repairs are revealed. Ranging in scale from small to monumental, these works have been hung on the wall and as part of larger, floor-based installations. 

Peter Dreher (b. 1932, Mannheim, Germany) studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts at Karlsruhe from 1950 to 1956, where he was taught by Karl Hubbuch, Wilhelm Schnarrenberger, Erich Heckel. From 1968 to 1997, Dreher was Professor of Painting at the State Academy, Karlsruhe, where he earned the honorary Chair of Painting in 1965. During his professorship, he taught and influenced a number of acclaimed artists, including Anselm Kiefer.

Born in Zhejiang, 1973, Yuan Yuan studied in the Oil Painting Department of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1996 and a Master of Fine Arts in 2008. 

Lives and works in Hangzhou.

Dexter Dalwood, born in 1960, Bristol, UK, lives and works in London, UK.

In Dexter Dalwood’s practice there is a highly sophisticated construction of contemporary events and figures mixed in art historical settings. Typically, Dalwood's works depict imagined and constructed interiors or landscapes, usually devoid of figures, that act as memorials or descriptions of various historic people, places or moments. They draw on the old tradition of ‘History Paintings’ and act as memorials or descriptions of various historic people, places or moments. Dalwood subject from major political events, imagined places marked by some traumatic history or event, portraits of famous figures both - in general events or people that are a part of our shared cultural memory. In this depiction of the ‘real’ history, Dalwood weaves art-historical references into this contemporary popular conscience, leaving small clues for the viewer so that he or she may complete the image: “The viewer must use their imagination to complete my images, so I create images that trigger memories, or play upon images they may already have in mind about certain events. I like the idea of painting something that you may know a little about - the date, the place, the person"- but that you don’t necessarily have a specific image for. 

Wang Zhibo is a talented young female Chinese artist who specialises in the rendition of oil paintings depicting natural and man-made interior and exterior spaces. A recent graduate from the China Academy of Art Oil Painting Department, Zhibo was awarded the prestigious national Luo Zhongli Scholarship in 2008 for her sensitive and evocative Garden paintings.

Tim Eitel (b. 1971, Leonburg Germany) studied German language, literature, and philosophy at the University of Stuttgart from 1993- 1994. Eitel studied painting at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig from 1997- 2001, and was a Meisterschüler in the class of Professor Arno Rink from 2001- 2003.