“The birth of interactions”

10 September – 10 November 2022

IAM Contemporary Art is pleased to present The birth of interactions, a group exhibition featuring four international artists.

Contemporary artworks are created through interactions connecting the past, the present, and the future. Kane is a Maltese artist who explores the relationship between the evolution of technology and human beings. Michael is an Austrian artist who visualises the impact of the digitalised modern society on the natural world. Aliki is a French artist who captures the dialogue between historical paintings and the beauty of chance created by analog methods. Wioletta is a Polish artist whose compositions and colours are inspired by forms found in inherited religious paintings and nature. Their works transcend the categorisation of art as sculpting, painting, photography, calligraphy and collage.

We hope this exhibition will allow you to immerse yourself in the world of contemporary art.

ARTISTS

ALIKI BRAINE

Born in 1976 in Paris, France. Lives and works in London, UK. Associate Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art, UAL Lecturer for The National Gallery, The Wallace Collection, Christies Education and The Arts Society. She studied at The Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford University, The Slade School of Fine Art, London and The Courtauld Institute of Art where she was awarded a distinction for her masters in 17th century painting.

Braine is interested in pointing out the physical nature of photographic images and the debt photography owes to the history of western European painting. After the developing process the surface of the negatives are being violated by folding, punching holes, drawing with ink or overlaying negatives with adhesive labels. Braine tries to make the viewer acknowledge photography as an object and the image as a construct by intervening in the pristine surfaces of the negatives. By committing to only working in analog materials, Aliki asks her viewer to slow down and to thoughtfully reconsider what a photograph is.

KANE CALI

Born in Malta 1983. Lives and works in Valletta, Malta. MA Ceramics & Glass ‒ Royal College of Art, London, UK. 3 Dimensional Design Glass BA (Hons) ‒ University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK. He has exhibited internationally in Paris, Milan, London and Shanghai.
Cali is fascinated by the relationship between man and machine. His contemporary works are an attempt to explore the ways in which they can inform, evolve and affect biology, identity and concioussness.

The work exhibited is questioning the Internet of things (IoT), which has brought convenience and reliability, but now dominates the way people work, handle finances, travel, seek entertainment, the political landscape and even the way they seek love. There is no doubt this will continue to alter mans biological experience of life. Cali questions this through the use of rigid composition formed by figurative abstractions, each appearing to float in defence of gravity.

MICHAEL DOHR

Born in Wolfsberg, Austria. Lives and works between Wolfsberg, Austria and London, UK. He holds an MA in fine art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, a BA in transcultural communication (University of Graz) and studied translation at the Department of Translation Studies (University of Graz). His work has been included in London Grads Now. 21, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2021); Postcards from London, Villa Arson, Nice, FR (2021); Rally ‒ MA Fine Art degree show, Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK (2021); Late at Tate, Tate Britain online, London, UK (2020). He was awarded the Frank Bowling Scholarship in 2020.

Dohr works with a visual vocabulary that draws its inspiration from the structures of the natural world as well as from the industrialized society that surrounds us. In a process of imitating and simplifying natural shapes, patterns or creatures and undermining their organic origin by using building materials such as plaster, insulation boards or silicone the artist creates speculative worlds caught between an organic past and a technological and digital future.

WIOLETTA KULEWSKA AKYEL

Born in Poland, 1980. Lives in Valletta, Malta. Works between Malta, Poland and Great Britain. Kulewska is a graduate of Fine Arts from the Opole High School of the Arts, the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland and the London Metropolitan University. In 2018, she was selected for the Slade educational residency in Contemporary Painting in London. In March-April 2022, Kulewska had a solo exhibition The Feather Collector at Valletta Contemporary gallery curated by Anna Stec, with honorary Patronage of the exhibition Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Valletta, and supported by Adam Mickiewicz Institute of Culture, Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland and the London Metropolitan University. In 2018, she was selected for the Slade educational residency in Contemporary Painting in London.

Kulewska is working across painting, design and installation, often extending beyond the limitations of canvas and frame. Her works compositions and colours are inspired by forms found in religious paintings & nature. The work exhibited is made out of two painted panels portraying different motifs found in the mountains and monasteries of the Troodos region in Cyprus. Each panel is painted with abstract forms similar to stained glass windows and wallpaper patterns. Kulewska uses motif layers on a geometrically segmented canvas to occupy her position between abstract painting and interior decor.