Relicts: Roman & Others An exhibition of art works by Ekaterina Mortensen (with Alex Mortensen).

The hands are stilled. In life they were large, capable, blunt-fingered; a craftsman's paws. She liked to touch the paint, using her hands and fingers to push and pull the oily medium like a potter molding clay. Galleries sometimes were concerned that the lumps of paint sticking out from her canvases would be damaged by visitors touching them, but she wanted to share her passion for painting, her compassion for art. "Let them touch the paintings," she ordered. Ekaterina Mortensen particularly enjoys conceptual art and likes to play with concepts in her works. At 20 August 2011, I went to see an exhibition of art works by Ekaterina Mortensen which located in 279 Palmer Street on Darlinghurst. I specifically came at that day so I can meet the artist in person. Im delighted that I met her in the gallery, as she told us her concept behind her paintings. If all can be summarized with one sentence, its inquisitive. In this exhibition, Ekaterina display her versatility on building and landscape. Her painting display various range from historical building to old ruins. She tried to emphasize the cultural point of old building and ruins by using her painting. Ekaterina vision also has another quality that you need to look at. Its cinematographic. Lets see one of her painting, the coliseum ruins. in this painting shown her eye sweeps over a vast landscape which stretch from a tiny rock on the floor to the contour that shown in ruins. In the spotlight glare of a hot, midday sun, the ruins are portrayed as conforming to historical beauty, but in the soft evening twilight they act quite different. A point Ekaterina frequently underscores by depicting in the shadow areas is contrast contour surface that give contrast with any other surfaces. There are so many things that fascinate me. From significant views, small details, bright sunsets, pale grey days, young, old, I like life and all the manifestations of nature. She said when I ask about her artwork. She mentions also that everything in the world has its own times.

This painting depictured part of coliseum ruins. it giving plenty of detail like moss on the pillar, plenty dent on the ruins, but still show the characteristic of roman architecture. She build the ruins in background with white color to give more impression to the ruins and blend nicely with the background scenery which shown on the windows.

This painting is using the same building with different angle, she play with the light as she paint it against the sunset, as it give warm color, she tried to multiply the effect of old-aged building. This painting tries to tell us that this building had seen many historical events, and its still standing up till now and in the future.

This painting give surrealist effect to the viewer, it symbolizes its hard history that makes this building become a ruin in present time. She give plenty contrast color in this painting to show the degree of contour in surface, and she tried to combine with the nature landscape scenery. On the right top we still can see the image of mountain which blend to the ruin, the more its getting near to the ruins it give surreal impression to the audience.

This painting really takes my whole attention from all the painting in the gallery, as this painting give the rough feel to the ruins. you can see the detail on its surface, every bump, and if you look closely to the painting, you can see the level of thickness on the painting which give different impression with other painting. This painting allure me makes me actually touch the painting with my hand. The gallery staff see my action, gave me a warning to not touch the painting. Ekaterina hear the commotion that made by me and the staff said let him touch the painting, let him feel the difference. Hearing her saying that encourages me to actually look more closely to the painting, I didnt touch it anymore, but I can tell that the degree of thickness can be called same as emboss effect in photoshop.

This painting made the coliseum ruin on the backward, but it still can attract audience eyes to see the ruins. The buildings that block the view of ruin are made like that to give sneaky feel to the ruins. This artistic painting portrait coliseums surrounding. As the artist, Ekaterina paint this using en-plein-air technique.

This painting share same architecture with the coliseum. She makes the shadow that created on the gap around the windows in warmer tone color. In here you can see the blending of the dirt, surface with the building by using similar color, but still give appropriate texture to determine which is floor and which is wall.

Abstract painting with huge color contrast gives the strange feel to the audience. As i had hard time to translate this painting to word, i still describe this painting as unique. With Ekaterina explanation about the concept of this painting, i can only simply amazed with it. Honestly, I still dont really understand this picture, I cant get the meaning, but I still can see this is a great painting; I love the contrast of color, the beauty that it give.

The inner coliseum, the only painting in the gallery which actually shows the inner arena of coliseum. Collapsed ruin in some part doesnt destroy the beauty of this architecture. Even more, Ekaterina successfully implement the shattered and uneven surface as one of the attractive point in this painting. As most Painting made by her, the sky give plenty of layer of color, which give depth effect on her every painting.

Unique and complex roman architecture building which covered with moss made this one of my favorite painting in this gallery. This painting has unique style as there some small scratch in many places, some dent in many places on the building has been pictured really well. It covers the detail really well.

The last painting that I take picture of, a unique and attractive painting, i love the light effect in this painting, its look like give a ray of light from sky, cover the ruins. the sight of ruins in the middle of forest, not to mention an orange tone forest, give impression to me an really old forgotten ruins, and the forest preserve it.

Conclusion Im really glad that I come to this exhibition, some talk with Ekaterina accompanied by a glass of wine give some elegant factor in this exhibition. The tour guide from the curator of the gallery to all the painting in the wall(at that time, not only Ekaterina (Kayla) but there also some artist like Cristian Ballack, Unburried, etc that had their

painting hanged on the wall), following with the auction of several painting. No more word to say, that I actually enjoy it. There plenty people that come to the gallery, some of them go home after the auction finish, some of them talk with artist there, while some of them are there simply because they want to appreciate art. With small room and place, its quite crowded to walk around and see another painting, so I stick to Ekaterina painting section, and only sneak peek to Unburied painting and Flower painting by Kang Hee soon, both painter really give high quality painting that can be compete with Ekaterina painting. Pretty much said, that the painting here is quite classy. Review of 20 August 2011 Tap Gallery exhibition Franly Chandra Arief Moerwanto