K R I T I K E N

Claracarat ist in der gegenwärtigen Kunstszene zu einem wichtigen Namen geworden. Ihr Mut, ja ihre Hemmungslosigkeit in der plastischen Gestaltung des Materials führt zu einer einmaligen Bildsprache, die wir als die unsrige entdecken, als Ausdruck unseres eigenen Selbst. Die ästhetische Empfindung gegenüber einem wertvollen Kunstwerk ist die Teilnahme: wir meinen, bei der Bestimmung der visuellen Intentionen von Anfang an dabei gewesen zu sein, und, post factum, stellt sich ein geheimnisvolles déjà vu ein. Die Modernität dieser Arbeiten wirkt auf ahnungslose Betrachter verstörend, fasziniert nur durch die Anspielungen der taktilen Bildoberfläche. Immer wieder versucht man, die Ausstellungsstücke zu berühren; der Unbedarfte hat kein Vertrauen in die Radiographie seines Blicks... und die Künstlerin muss den Betrachter schon mal in die Schranken weisen. Malerei - denn auch bei Claracarats Arbeiten sprechen wir von Malerei - ist in erster Linie ILLUSION. Das Versprechen einer Verzauberung, einer Sinnestäuschung gar hat die Malerei im Gegensatz zur Fotografiekunst zu einer einmaligen geistigen Nahrung werden lassen. Das Entsetzen des Publikums in Gegenwart zeitgenössischer Konzeptkunst mündete bei vielen Künstlern in eine Art Falle, und schließlich in den Wunsch, den Betrachter endgültig zu schockieren. Aber Claracarats Kunst wählt einen anderen Weg. Die Malerei wird bei ihr nicht zu einem einfachen psycho-visuellen Spiel, sondern zu einer visuell -ästhetischen Realität, derer wir im Komfort der aktuellen Modernität dringend bedürfen. Ihre Arbeiten sind unverwechselbar und bringen ein atmosphärisches, gleichsam sonores Feld hervor. Claracarats Kunst geht über regionale Versuche hinaus, ihr eignet eine geradezu universalistische Grundhaltung. Ihre Arbeiten können jeglichen modernen aber auch musealen architektonischen Raum schmücken. Auch auf die authentischen chromatischen Fehlbildungen sei hier hingewiesen, die jenseits des Stils und der Anmut ein ganz persönliches verspielt-träumerisches Universum entfalten. Steinblumen, Der Philosoph, UFO, Metal Aralc, Psyhedelic Sphere, Akteus Pyramid Paradox mit in Collagetechnik eingefügten Objekten gehören zu einer Galaxie, die aus einer wahren künstlerischen Explosion hervorgegangen ist. Ich bin überzeugt, dass die Explosion der Schönheit und Freude in diesen Arbeiten für die Kunst unserers Jahrhunderts grundlegende Antworten, aber auch Fragen bereithält. 

Gabriel Stan 

“METAMORPHOSIS” – A Claracarat Exhibition at the Brasov KronArt Gallery

Virgil Borcan – January 13, 2016

While precipitations-wise last year’s December was dry, it still gave us some quite rewarding cultural events like the KronArt Gallery’s the “Metamorphosis” exhibition which presents to Brasov’s art audience the work of Claracarat, a daughter of this town for long living in Germany. (Exhibition open at KronArt Gallery the entire month of January, 2017) 

Challenging as it might appear at first contact, Claracarat’s paintings (or rather artifacts) introduce us to a vision which synthesizes the micro and the macro universe in one world – and while neither paintings, nor installations, those uniformly rectangular structures have a striking esthetical value.  

In stylized portraits, weathered grays, browns, coppers or purple are cleverly highlighted by material additions (a feather, a sift or a piece of copper), thus marking the twilight space which lurks between human and abstract, and between naïf art and avant-garde subtle representations. 

Inciting as these works are, they are also complemented by the “visual reading pact” of their titles, like Rust, Galactic Radio, Parallel Universe (a remarkable work, indeed), or Psychedelic Sphere.

An established artist in Germany, the United States, France and elsewhere, Claracarat, who hails from Brasov, is a pleasant gift for her hometown folks. And we cannot but appreciate her work – as well as KronArt Gallery curator’s, Gabriel Stan, gracious support.

http://www.larevista.ro/metamorfoze-expozitie-claracarat-la-galeria-kronart-din-brasov/

Between The Remote and The Closeness

a Claracarat Paintings Exhibition at KronArt Gallery, Brasov 

Mircea Doreanu – January 5th, 2017

A lovely elf, half Edith Piaf, half biker, Claracarat paints (actually works, because she oftentimes ads to her canvasses concrete materials) much like a master. And risky as it might sound, her style can be described as a sort of abstract pointillism, which, while owing to Seurat’s and Signac’s the minute touch-work, has a different but intriguing esthetical self-fulfillment. 

Continuing the comparisons, Claracarat’s Kron-Art gallery exhibition falls somewhere between Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock, resembling with the first, contrasting with the second one – and it’s this acordeon-like, playful change of focus between the remote and the close-by which  betrays to the gallery visitor the nature of this exhibit. Playful, yet explosive – and the Explosion is the very sign of Claracarat’s artistic nature. 

Claracarat’s artistic ingenuity and savvy playfulness with the medium’s possible styles transpires through her invocations of totems – in obvious manner, like in OKOT, or as a fuzzy presence in the Akteus Pyramid Paradox. Then, Sunset of Valencia – is this a false peisage or a true, yet astutely faked landscape? But probably it would be superfluous to speak amongst these works about totems’ and symbols’ magical and thaumaturgical value, and about their pervasive presence in arts.  

Paintings titles are just emblems, paradigms or hints, but, like her Eye Tracker and Color Tunnel works, the titles also show a good knowledge of the other arts realms – and, alas! while invoking Maeterlink here, we cannot help noticing  how the osmosis of arts seems to stubbornly haunt the “modernaires”, Claracarat y compris …

But the panache of the artistic inspiration is always tamed by the rationality of a gallery exhibition, fact which KronArt confirms by aligning the paintings according to their tonalities sequence – still, plenty of opportunity for detecting these works’ flares of originality.  

Whimsical, and occasionally brazenly contrasting nature these works exude. The Funny Fish and The Phoenix Bird are pleasantly decorative, but others got plenty of „THAT cosmic feel” –  not that strange thing though, for a realm (i.e. Germany, Claracarat’s adoptive place), which came up with things like the Tangerine Dream or the Kraftwerk....  

Whimsicality or cosmic feel notwithstanding, the paintings’ incisiveness is often sometimes by smart overlapping of concrete matter like strips of smooth fabric and so on, over the paintwork itself  – and these juxtapositions offer a good starting point for a “Is this thing, reality, really fractured?” meditation. 

Totems, taumaturgy, whimsicality, cosmic feel, then... could our age arts lack a tinge of dystopia in their attempt to render these times’ compasslessness and anxieties? No, and the Metal City,  Claracarat’s intense dystopian vision shows this – metal-looking chunks of fading matter force the mind in an infinity teeming with skulls. This is a work which deserves to get a place a museum, indeed. 

Claracarat succeeds in bringing in magical colors without formally invoking magic – and blue, the blue of The Blue Planet – is this painter’s most striking hue. But other times, reds of keen choice, or like in the Lava Field, the ample gradient of dark colors let the viewer wander among potential meanings (not unlike how the creeping dampness plagues on houses did inspire da Vinci). Claracart’s shapes and colors are not sharp – they creep in our mind as forms fearing our blunting perception limits. 

However, fanciful as it may appear, Claracarat’s painting is a actually a rational act, which succeeds to convey exactly the irationality of imagination, and succeeds to upset this state of things. I might be wrong, but trying to figure out her roots in the Romanian manners of artistic expression, I can think of her paintings related somehow with traditional church processional banners, or (but not necessarily Olt area), folk tapestry works, or... Horia Bernea’s paintings. And I’d like to see her art successfully fulfilling such a trajectory – and since here, the Brincusi, Mademoiselle Pogany-resembling shape of Claracarat’s semi-figurative Ademondra is a good harbinger. 

For those in an uneasy relationship with art, this type of expression might ease them back into painting’s folds. 

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LAREVISTA.RO, May 10, 2017/ Mircea Doreanu review: “Between The Remote and The Closeness: Claracarat painting exhibition at KronArt Gallery – Brasov (Kronstadt) Romania: December 12th, – 2016  January 12th 

http://www.larevista.ro/distante-apropieri-performanta-expozitie-claracarat-la-kronart/