Looking back on the exhibition Against the Laws of Gravity at Mantra Concept in Bratislava (Spinnery 1900Svätoplukova 2/A).
A few years ago, in 2016, Lubomir Typlt presented his works at the Czech Cultural Center in Paris. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague but also that of Düsseldorf… and with personalities like A.R. Penck or Markus Lüpertz, he is today one of the important figures of the contemporary scene in Central Europe… halfway between Czech and German figurative expressionism… a style apart and without borders!
Last summer, he presented his exhibition “Levitation” at the famous Villa Pellé in Prague, in an intimate and domestic atmosphere where the viewer felt at home in a succession of rooms and floors; each space being like a different chapter of a long story that the spectator discovered step by step… or in levitation.
Lubomir Typlt just had another exhibition at Mantra Concept in Bratislava, in a totally different space… very open and industrial… to challenge the laws of gravity. The canvases evolve in a new context, a new dimension conducive to another form of ascension… while the merry-go-round of bicycles, with red umbrellas as wheels, turns and floats in the air like a mobile and a universal mechanism… both childish and surreal. It questions the balance of reality.
Would these two exhibitions ultimately form one, as they invite us to relive, to reconsider, to feel continuity in change… and change in continuity? In this new exhibition, there is the affirmation of a previous desire… a new impetus. Whether levitation or gravitation… the body like the canvas rises… above the world. However, if levitation has a magical and supernatural dimension… a form of ritual in the manner of Goya’s witches… gravitation belongs to the domain of science and experience. It invites us to elevate ourselves through art, by situating ourselves at the confluence of these two worlds, and by taking part in new possible horizons… above ground.
In all of the artist’s works, we find bright colors and natural and supernatural light. From blue to red, cold and warm colors balance in an astonishing clash. The contrast (blue, pink, yellow…) on the body and faces acts as if the characters were illuminated by a mystical or cosmic fire… intensifying their moods and expressions. There is a form of immortal and suspended youth.
Boys and girls do not meet on the canvas, like in a schoolyard… different friends, different “games”… no ambiguous feelings between them or the viewer. Sometimes the boys come together in a prophetic community… sometimes the girl performs a dance closer to witch rites. Individuality has no real place or importance in these compositions because the group and the expression predominate. It’s a small company. They dress the same way, in several colors. The laughter, smiles, hands, postures, looks and interactions between the characters suggest intentions and potential affinities or tensions. However, the scenes are dominated bythe silence and the subtle tones of the colors… The interpretation remains ambiguous and wide open for the spectator for whom everything becomes possible as in a schoolyard… The spectator participates as a member of the group… in the unexpected recreation… a ceremony to defy the laws of gravity… a child’s play!
The hidden faces, the hair blowing in the wind… the stopping and the movement… contrast with the large globe eyes that the girls hold like a light and airy ball… often pointed like a laser. Blindness and sight are in conflict… Multiple visions. In this, girls and their bodies are often accompanied by a larger figure…like a mother or a powerful goddess. Her dress blends in with the decor like a mountain… a rock. She teaches, dominates and controls the situation! Girls (girls) have no autonomy in this pecking order… grounded.
As for the iconic and unmissable crying baby, in several color variations… the viewer can hear the noise just from the facial expression. The repetition, the accumulation of paintings, similar but always different like a decomposition of movement… like a musical rhythm… resonates in the room… omnipresent. As the faces multiply…the cry continues…becomes louder. It’s not a baby… it’s a giant… an inconsolable and powerful universe!
More information :
ABSTACT MIMESS 