03 Sep 2012

Viron Erol Vert solo exhibition, Galerist Haskoy

Galerist hosts the second solo exhibition titled '7 Curtains' by the artist Viron Erol Vert between 12th September and 21st October, 2012. Vert was born in Germany in 1975 to a family of Greek, Italian, and Syrian origins. Vert's own multi-cultural background is coloring his work, which arches between Occident and Orient.

'7 Curtains' alludes to the Turkish word perde, also associated with the acts of a play or an opera. On this theatre stage, Vert creates a new language of mysticism incorporating ancient beliefs, orientalist clichés and esoteric correspondences. He uses the power of myth and archetype to create post-modern alchemical processes - looking back while he's looking ahead.

With '7 Curtains' comes seven different mediums and seven different points of view, as Vert attempts to answer the questions that lie at the very heart of our existence. And like any good magus, he conjures up answers that are riddles in themselves. The flying carpet, for example, supposedly belonging to King Solomon, becomes an Abrahamic intersection and Vert uses it as a machine with hidden numerological properties to explore identity in a culturally tumultuous world. This is a recurring theme in Vert's art: Behind the beautiful object lies a deeper truth, but also more questions.

The themes are remixed and come out as something altered; an old question posed in a new way. The '7 Curtains' becomes a transformative process for the artist as well as the spectator. Like identity itself, it is an ever-changing process, a struggle between belonging and questioning, fought inside our hearts and souls as in countless wars throughout history. Behind the veils, riddles and curtains, Vert is searching for that rarest of commodities – peace.

In Vert's art, we find markers from a composite identity. The endless beats of Berlin techno-nights meet the perpetual whirling of the Turkish Dervish. Traditional materials and production techniques are used to convey futuristic imagery of the artist. Despite this, Vert's art rests calmly within its culturally mixed framework. The beauty of the sacred remains intact even as he reconfigures the motifs referring to faiths from all over the world.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Vert studied at the UdK in Berlin and at the Department for Visual Art at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. He graduated his master class in Fashion Design with honourable mention at the HTW in Berlin and at the Department for Experimental Surface at the KHB in Berlin.

From 2004 and onwards he has participated in several exhibitions and institutions both in Germany and abroad, among others at 'Enough Room for Space' Gent, Centro Cultural Montehermoso Victoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 'Stuio Pick', Gallerie Opendahl, Berlin, Colette, Paris, 'Die Ungarische Methode', Ascherleben, 'Living with ART', Gallerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, 'Correct Me If I'm Critical', Fellethuset, Berlin, 'ALLE', Berghain, Berlin and 'Peripetiva', Galerist, Istanbul.

Besides his solo-shows, he has collaborated with other artists, such as Sven Marquardt in 13 Monde, Olof Dreijer in Exhoes from Marmori and Luke Slater in Messenger.

In 2008, Viron Vert was awarded the first prize in the category Painting and Illustration by the Turkish Society for Sculpting and Arts.