Rosa Loy: Spring
Gallery Baton is delighted to announce Rosa Loy (b. 1958)’s solo exhibition, Spring from 17th May to 17th June in Apgujeong, Seoul. Rosa Loy is a key figure of New Leipzig School (NLS) which has established its solid position since 1990’s, anticipating the re-emergence of two- dimensional artworks. This exhibition will present Loy’s artistic universe created by romantic colours and an expression mode of portraying women as an autonomous agent.
With references to history, circumstances and experiences, Rosa Loy is one of German representative painters who visualises dreams, hopes and the upcoming future. Though she aims for a definitive composition of colours and shapes, Loy maintains an open approach to any inspirations and she emphasizes on a sense of purity and liberty. Especially, her unique sentiment gains its power at the point where a delicate demonstration of objects and an illustration of sceneries obscuring time and space are combined. Her romantic colours maximizing this dreamy atmosphere are achieved by employing particular paints which contain Casein—one of the milk proteins. Due to its appealing hue and a high degree of preservability, Casein was widely used in ancient fresco paintings whereas in the present era, the development of acrylic and oil pigments led the frequency of its usage to decrease. However, this unique medium fascinated Loy; consequently, she attains her magical style of painting by producing and proficiently applying her own pure colours without additives.
In addition, the keyword of her practice—the most crucial factor viewers ought to pay attention to—is women. Rosa Loy depicts female characters who actively and independently carry out their activities such as labour, leisure and daily life. Dominating the centre of the picture, they are described as spontaneous performers of their life. Also, their behavioral manner of seeking for demands seems to follow intuitive motives to satisfy them rather than others. Thus, Rosa Loy attempts to reveal her voices about women’s social status and roles through artworks; feminism stands for sexual equality for her. Her conviction that women must independently work and live possessing equal rights with men is explicitly embodied in progressive stances or movements and self-absorbed facial expressions of the female figures in her paintings. Accordingly, conveying her belief that equivalent values must be given regardless of gender in every sector of the society, Loy’s body of work offers an opportunity to rethink the meaning of feminism of our time.
Rosa Loy studied horticulture at Humboldt University Berlin and completed BA and MA at Academy of Visual Art in Leipzig, Germany. She is internationally recognized by attending numerous worldwide exhibitions in Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Spain and USA, and her paintings are included in a collection of individuals and major global organizations such as MoMA, LA MoCA, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig and Deutsche Bank.
