Elizabeth Xi Bauer Presents:
Cupid

16th August – 14th September 2024
Private View: 15th August 2024

Exhibiting Artists:
Abraham Kritzman & Matan Oren
Andreea Petrișor Hereșanu & Cătălin Marius Petrișor Hereșanu
Clementine Keith-Roach & Christopher Page
Gokula Stoffel & Paulo Monteiro
Maria Konder & Rafael D’Aló
Mariana Paiva Rebola & Theodore Ereira-Guyer
Marta Jakobovits & Miklós Jakobovits
Mr and Mrs Philip Cath
Rafał Zajko & Jonathan Baldock

Curated by Maria do Carmo M. P. de Pontes

Living under the same roof brings complicity like few other relationships in our lives. Couples share the good and the bad, in sickness and in health, until parted by death – or until one or both halves decide they have had enough. Romantic entanglements are intense bonds in and of themselves, but what about when people take these links to the next level, blurring distinctions between living and creating? When beyond sharing a table and a bed, lovers also share the same profession? Does complicity then shift into the occasional Schadenfreude, or can selflessness reign sovereign? How can one give honest feedback about their partner’s work when there are so many feelings, possibly contradictory ones, involved?

Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s current summer exhibition, cheekily called Cupid after the Roman God of love, brings together nine couples where both parts are active in producing art, whether as individuals or as double acts. They were invited to respond to this invitation by either creating a collaborative piece – which in some cases meant working together for the first time – or by exhibiting individual pieces.

Matan Oren and Abraham Kritzman have flirted with the idea of collaborating before, yet this is the first time that such discussions have taken form. The result is a blue structure made of two flaps containing works created individually by Kritzman and by Oren; as such, the work stands as a sort of hybrid, somewhere between a shared and an individual object. We are reminded of a stage where their solo performances take place. What’s more, the V-shape of the object and the fact that two of them are exhibited in a quasi-zigzag one after the other alludes to a screen – that is, an object meant to give some, but not total privacy, in a household environment.

A sense of domesticity is also perceivable in the works of Rafał Zajko and his partner Jonathan Baldock. They each have created sculptures where both of their faces are featured: Baldock, two flowers that hang on a wall, which together form a heart shape, and whose centre is their heads – eyes shut, lips pressed together as if about to kiss. Zajko, eggcups with the same eyes shut and lips pressed, yet this time the lips blow steam that connects the faces to the basis. Each cup is a mask and, once an egg is placed atop, they create the illusion of a head.

Both Theodore Ereira-Guyer and his partner Mariana Paiva Rebola, as well as Maria Konder and Rafael D’Aló, all responded with individual creations that complement one another, as in a yin and yang dynamic. Konder exhibits one of her signature gigantic dolls, namely a Venus – the Goddess of sex and fertility and the mother of Cupid – with a prominent vulva. Venus is also a planet, and this other understanding of the word seems to inform Rafael D’Aló’s works: two wall compositions featuring various circular shapes, acting as constellations to Konder’s Venus (2021). Ereira-Guyer exhibits two bronze sculptures that are shaped as rustic heads: one blue and one golden, whereas Paiva Rebola displays two unique collages, both featuring headless female bodies. It is as if the works require one another to form a full body.

Mr and Mrs Philip Cath, the alias of Khloe and Philip Cath, exist in an intense communion that touches upon all aspects of their lives, public and private alike. Unlike the other artists on show, they have no individual practice, only that of their joint persona. Here they present two portraits, each featuring one of them, painted in a glowing, neon-like pattern. Positioned side by side, Khloe stares at Philip defiantly, hands on waist, as if in the middle of a debate; Philip has two of his hands also around his waist, yet a third hand is raised, as if mansplaining something to Khloe. Noteworthy, the title of this exhibition also draws inspiration from their dog, Cupid.

Hands also feature heavily in Clementine Keith-Roach and Christopher Page’s collaboration, a wall- relief that was envisioned and executed jointly. The work features casts of their hands and forearms holding one another, forming a crown of intertwined limbs; chains are interspersed among the hands, reinforcing the idea of a union. This communion of gestures frames a circular object with a flat surface, painted in Page’s signature trompe l’oeil style, that grades colour, here like a sunshine – or sunset.

Gokula Stoffel and Paulo Monteiro exhibit three landscape-oriented watercolours conceived with four hands. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the couple began creating these joint compositions as a way of creatively passing time. Alluding to the Surrealist game of exquisite corpse, these colourful works have a cave-painting vibe, giving traces of their individual practices while creating an unexpected, dialectical third thing that could not exist in individual circumstances.

The work of Andreea and Cătălin Marius Petrișor Hereșanu also gathers both of their artistic identities while creating a unique blend. The couple created a painting using tempera and charcoal, mediums that are unfamiliar to their individual practices. Sitting somewhere between abstraction and figuration, the composition, titled Because you were born (2024), is embedded in allegories of conception. Both Andreea and Cătălin Marius have addressed through words and artworks the many ways in which their lives changed after the birth of their daughter.

Marta and Miklós Jakobovits exhibit three types of interconnected works. There is a series of small Raku¹ pillows created by Marta, exhibited alongside tempera paintings of the same pillows made by Miklós: a perfect example of how one’s individual practice might inspire the other’s work, creating an effortless artistic flow with mutual benefits. In addition, they exhibit a box that was devised by both of them: the form made by Marta and painted by Miklós, yet again vouching for the beauty of collaboration between lovers.

This exhibition will run from 16th August to 14th September 2024, Wednesday to Saturday, 12-6 pm or by appointment

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery
Fuel Tank, 8-12 Creekside
London SE8 3DX
020 3048 5220
contact@lizxib.com

1 Raku is a traditional kind of Japanese pottery