George.K – Tobia Ravà

15/06/2011

« Appearance…beyond appearance… » – George.K

Between sociology and anthropology, the art of George.K operates a sort of classification of the different layers of Indian society, often focusing on disadvantaged groups and popular castes such as women and their precarious living conditions, and on persecuted people such as transsexuals (hijras).

« Algoritmi e ghematriot» – Tobia Ravà

At the base of everything is ghematry, the study of the correspondences between the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the numbers, which the author constantly feeds on. In particular, thanks to the equivalence between speech and number, ghematry triggers an interpretive mechanism whose concepts can find numerical form and, at the same time, a series of numbers can be the expression of several words…based on the catalogue « Algoritmi e ghematriot»

George K, a photographer, painter, sculptor and poet has been working in Chennai for the last few years. George K’s works depict reality as seen by all. His style as a realist places him alongside the new generation of ‘neo- realists’ who have made a significant impact on the contemporary visual art scenario. He started his exploration into the world of visual arts with photography and has now moved on to other mediums. In his life-size, vividly coloured, super realistic fibreglass sculptures of these characters, he captures their life devoid of sentimentalism while also portraying the pathos of their existence.

Straddling the worlds of photorealist painting, collage art, street art, billboards and advertising, George K’s stunning works are all of the above and more, and create depth and emotion out of familiar impressions. Anyone who has visited India will recognize these scenes, and yet they are universal. George has successfully used the powerful and emotive vehicle of painting as a medium to convey what his discerning and philosophical eye and mind sees and interprets, always with the utmost compassion and respect for the subject.

Tobia Ravà graduated in Semiology of the Arts at the University of Bologna, where he studied with Umberto Eco, Renato Barilli, Omar Calabrese and Flavio Caroli.

After having experienced several creative paths inherent in the art and science relationship, since 1998, Tobia Ravà began research related to the mystical currents of Hebraism: from qabbalah to chassidism, proposing a new symbolic approach through the infinite possibilities of combinations of figures. The literary and mathematical logic of his works is understood as a genetic code and collects both philosophical and linguistic elements which will build a kind of pictorial magma made of letters and numbers, which crystallize on the surface “at wide angle” of images architectural and naturalistic views of canals, forests, mechanical devices and clocks.