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until 03.09. | #3488ARTatBerlin | 68 projects presents from 2. July 2022 the exhibition Graduation of the artist Giorgio Celin on the occasion of his residency.
Giorgio Celin grew up in Colombia, but lived and still lives in different places in Europe. His personal experiences from this migration history form the background for the works that are the focus of his Berlin exhibition. There is a kind of sadness inherent in the characters of his luminous paintings, which manifests itself in the expression of their faces as well as in the way they move in their bodies. The camaraderie and closeness that the characters portray as they embrace creates a sense of community. The people he paints are mostly characters who are marginalised and ostracised by society, portraying an intersectionality of queerness and immigration, and raising questions of belonging and seclusion.
Insignia of the queer subculture are combined with the formal language of his homeland as well as European visual language. Influenced by Japanese comics since the 1970s, the self-taught artist explores interpersonal moments with virtuosity like few of his generation.
His paintings are warm and crackling, sometimes the colours are crazy and overwrought, the next moment or image cloudy and delicate. As if the colours themselves are doing capers at one moment, only to rest again in perfect contentment. The scenes depicted are therefore rarely without a certain melancholy. They bring to mind a time when distance was not demanded. When looking at them, one thinks to oneself: ‘I wish that too’. His moments are so full of emotion that you simply have to empathise and yearn.
Celin tenderly explores the most diverse sensations, mostly between two people and their relationship to each other. The hands play just as central a role as the eyes and the respective posture. Men in sweatpants or jeans dance or cuddle closely and melt into each other. Sweat and emotional excitement are clearly visible. In the face, something of the colour of a bar light often shimmers blue.
Celin’s pictures give great scope to the imagination. They conjure up a fine smile on our faces, infect us with their life-affirming innocence and manage to make us look deep inside ourselves. Undetermined or indeterminable places of longing, but also places that we ourselves may know or at least often recognise. European metropolises such as Berlin, Paris or Barcelona and of course Barranquilla, the artist’s birthplace on the Colombian Atlantic coast. The latter is known for its legendary carnival, which was included in the UNESCO list of ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ in 2003. All these cities are places to which Giorgio Celin himself likes to travel and with whose inhabitants he collects colourful experiences.
His queer figures in these spectacular images are not always clearly binary and it seems to make no difference what gender they belong to. They all have similar experiences. All belong together in a common world. We all learn from each other and want to connect. Europe with Colombia, Africans with Indigos. All of us with the world. Let us have joy of life and depth, a seeing eye and a warm heart. That is what Georgio Celin wants to tell us with his unspeakably expressive colourful imagery.
Giorio Celin, Gifts Of a sleepless night (Crybaby), 2022, oil on canvas, 96 x 136 cm
Giorgio Celin was born in 1986 in Barranquilla, Colombia, and currently lives in Barcelona. In his work, Girogio explores themes of migration, belonging, relationships and nostalgia. Celin’s work is informed by his experience as a Colombian migrant who has lived in several European cities. He explores issues related to displacement and what it means to not feel a sense of belonging to a specific geographical place.
The artist has exhibited his work in galleries and institutions around the world, including the Musem of Contemporary Art, Rome, the Fondazione Michaelangelo Pistoletto, Venice, and residencies in Colombia and Italy. Notable shows include “Giorgio Celin: Las Olas” at Eve Leibe Gallery in London, United Kingdom in 2021, Fair at St. Agnes in Berlin, Germany in 2021 and current shows with Misa Discoveries, König Gallery, Berlin; Galerie Eve Leibe, London; Annarumma, Naples; Violation, Miami.
“Graduation” is accompanied by the monograph “Painting = Poetry” with works from 2018 until today. The works captivate with numerous personal stories that offer a broad perspective on what is happening in the Latin American diaspora community. The book includes the text of art historian and writer Cecilia Monteleone (154 Art Fair), writer and art critic Paul Clinton (ex-editor of Frieze), curator Jaider Orsini (Plataforma Canibal) and art historian and writer Maria Gaia Redavid (Contributor Exibart).
Opening: Saturday, 2. July 2022, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Exhibiton dates: Saturday, 2. July – Saturday, 3. September 2022
To the Gallery
Exhibition Giorio Celin – 68 projects | Zeitgenössische Kunst Berlin Galerien | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
