Fourth in the series of Discoveries exhibitions, this edition features work by three artists: Irini Bachlitzanaki, Andreana Dobreva and Clement Page. The artists were chosen by gallery directors Francesca Fiumano and Andrés Clase, who are always seeking to support and showcase emerging talent. The exhibition includes work in a variety of media including oil painting, fractured glass, embroidery, and sculpture. Whilst each artist has a very distinct visual language there is an underlying fascination with materiality and the creativity so essential to make an idea to a complete work.

Greek artist Irini Bachlitzanaki (b. 1984, Athens) studied History of Art at UCL and Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts and most recently at the Royal Academy Schools in London from where she graduated in 2021. Bachlitzanaki currently lives and works between Athens and London.

Inspired by material culture and the biographies of objects, Bachlitzanaki builds upon a world that is known and familiar to examine our relationship to objects we share our lives with. In doing this we are encouraged to explore things as a means of knowing the world around us. Within a practice that is primarily sculptural, she combines processes such as casting, ceramics, embroidery, and printmaking to interrogate the relationship of sculpture to other forms of representation.&#x20;

Solo exhibitions include: “just us on a different day” and “Emergent Qualities” at Elika Gallery, Athens; and “The Combination Show” at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Her work has been displayed in numerous group exhibitions both in the UK and internationally in galleries, museums, and independent art spaces.  Recently awarded scholarships and grants include: the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022), the Arts Council England DYCP grant (2022), the Jerwood Arts 1:1 grant (2021), the André Dunoyer de Segonzac Hon RA Prize from Royal Academy Schools (2021), the Wolfson College graduate prize (2021), the Gilbert Bayes Award (2020) and the NEON scholarship for postgraduate studies (2017-2020).

Bulgarian artist Andreana Dobreva (b.1982, Sliven) is a painter whose preferred media is oil on canvas. She studied classical painting in Bulgaria and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (Akademie der Bildende Künste Munich). She currently lives and works between London and Munich..

Dobreva’s interests lie in the unpolished realities of human life and what is beneath the surface of the inner and the outer worlds. These, along with the realities of refugees, human fears and her own history, are reflected in her work. The artist executes her paintings methodically and as a physical act, rather than engaging with an idea that must be fulfilled on the canvas. The pictorial polarities of light and shadow, and the graduation of colour in between are of constant interest to her. Dobreva observes closely the masters of Italian Baroque painting from the 17th and 18th centuries, taking inspiration from them she experiments with complicated compositions, brave juxtapositions between intense primary colours and creates works bursting with elemental energy.

The figurative acts as the vessel for the painting; she finds the tension between abstraction and figuration in the working process where the figurative becomes distorted and dissolves. The themes in her paintings exist in this space of transformation. Rather than operating from a grand vision or concept, Dobreva’s work evolves from one step to the next, carving its own path.

Solo exhibitions include: “Persephonium”, Lachenmann Art, Frankfurt: “Andreana Dobreva”, Emanuel von Baeyer Cabinet, London and “Figuren”, Lachenmann Art, Konstanz. In 2022 her work was featured at both TEFAF Maastricht and Frieze Masters London.

British artist Clement Page (b. 1967, Devon) obtained a BA Hons in painting from Cheltenham collage of Art followed by an MA in Art & Digital media from Westminster University. His practice encompasses film installation, photography, and painting. Page currently lives and works between Berlin and Bristol.&#x20;

Most recently Page has been exploring ways to involve the viewer in a direct way with painting. He has been experimenting with a variety of paints and different substrates which would enable this and he arrived at the use of mirrors.&#x20;

Using mirrors allows the artist to inscribe the viewer’s reflection and the surrounding environment into the painting. The ‘to be looked at’ aspect of painting is contrasted with the ‘to look at oneself’ aspect of mirrors. The meaning of each work changes depending upon the reflected environment and who is viewing it.

When asked by Hans Ulrich Obrist where he sees the work now ad where he sees it going Page replied:

“The painted images I create on the mirrors may at first appear abstract, but I give them a three-dimensional quality. I want them to exist as forms within the reality/image of the mirror, to signify obliquely. I seek painted forms which are ambiguous but suggestive, which can signify organic forms or just be taken as turbulent paint. For me the opposition between abstract or figurative no longer holds water. Every mark placed in a painting signifies, it is a question of how resistant the painting is to interpretation.”

\- Excerpt from a conversation between Clement Page and Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2019.

Page has works in numerous public collections including Sammlung Goetz, Goetz Media Art Collection, Munich: Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich and The American College of Greece Art Collection, Athens. Currently Clement is working on a monograph of his work with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Sacha Carddock, to be published later this year.&#x20;


Discoveries: IV

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