Crystel Ceresa, Eta Aquarides, 2019 (230 x 190 cm).
Press release, February 2020
A hymn to life and death
Galleri Christoffer Egelund is proud to present the exhibition HECATE – ÆTHER, which is the third solo show in the gallery by the Swiss artist Crystel Ceresa. At first glance, the observer is drawn and fascinated by the colorful and skillfully painted surfaces of the large-scale canvases – then by the deeper and more personal reminiscences and threads to art history.
In ancient Greece, the goddess Hecate held a position that was as important as strange. She adorned crossroads, presided over religious gatherings and rituals, welcomed the faithful at the entrances of temples and overlooked their homes. Hecate was the goddess of magic, of gates, of borders and frontiers, of medicinal and poisonous plants, of astrology and the underworld.
She was an unsettling deity, she was the trinity and her attributes were so contradictory that they seemed incompatible. Yet, she linked the Chthonic gods of the underworld with the human world and with the celestial realm of the Olympian gods. Hecate was a goddess and a priestess equipped with a key to open the doors of perception. With her torch, she would guide visitors through the corridors of life and death, where time disappears. Crystel Ceresa’s work reveals fragments of these initiatory journeys. We can follow her as we fall into the depth of her blacks, surf the iridescent clouds on the silver skies, or contemplate a gleamy painting from a shady point of view.
According to traditional alchemy, the world is a subtle mix of powder, water, air, fire, and ether. The airbrush, an ancient technique discovered in numerous pre-historic caves, such as Lascaux or Altamira, tells a similar story. Thousands of years ago the artists used a straw or a hollow bone to blow pigment and saliva onto the cave walls. They believed that the art would remain engraved on their souls, mostly because the most beautiful colors were the most toxic, causing severe alterations to their state of consciousness. Crystel Ceresa seeks continuity with this ethereal realm of dreams, inspirations, and visions. The marks she makes with her airbrush are contemporary but she uses the same colors from which the primitives extracted elixirs, enchanting spells or healing stones.
Crystel Ceresa opens the doors to mysterious territories, leading us to the confines of the incomprehensible. She is Hecate, who guides us through a vertiginous dive in the meanders of the universe and into our inner self. She drags us to the heart of these primal sensations, she reconciles the intimate and the distant, the minuscule and the titanic, the emotions and the knowledge, the matter and the spirit. These sensations are reflected and illuminated one inside each another in a miraculous combination that finally reconciles ourselves with ourselves.
The bewitching iridescence of meteorites. The skeletal outlines of chalky, diaphanous flowers. Magmatic hyperborean celestial vaults. A vaporous and hypnotic jungle, bright and incandescent. Crystal clear and magnetic waters. Polychromatic and shrill mandalas, like quicksand, pulsating, blurring our vision; all permeating our brain to enable the anima mundi to materialize.
Crystel Ceresa (1977) lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. She studied at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Geneva and in 2004 she graduated with an MA from Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Geneva. Ceresa has held several solo shows and participated in group exhibitions at Galleri Christoffer Egelund and is one of the gallery’s permanent artists. She has been the recipient of grants and awards from considerable organizations such as Fondation Patino (FR) and Fundazione Schiaredo (CH). Ceresa has exhibited widely in Switzerland and has been included in numerous solo and group shows in Europe. Her work is also included in important collections such as Academisch Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam, Bank Julius Bär, Basel, Collection Yves Racloz, Geneva and Collection Nicolas Torroni, Geneva.
Gallery Christoffer Egelund invites you to the opening of HECATE – ÆTHER by Crystel Ceresa Friday, Feb. 21., from 4-7 pm. The artist will be present during the opening reception.
Opening: Friday Feb. 21, from 4-7 pm.
Exhibition period: 21 February – 22 March, 2020.
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 am-6 pm, Saturday & Sunday, 12 am-4 pm.
Gallery Christoffer Egelund is a cutting-edge art gallery focusing on high quality Scandinavian and international contemporary art. An experimental and innovative approach is an important agenda, to constantly challenge the boundaries of the gallery and the art scene itself. The gallery exhibits artworks with a large variety of media e.g. works on paper, photos, paintings, sculptures, performance and video - a unique artistic expression is of most importance.
The main target for the gallery is to create memorable exhibitions and to further the careers of emerging contemporary artists by curating exhibitions, participating in art fairs and biennales worldwide.
The gallery is a member of Danish Art Dealers Association (DGS) since 2006.