Róbert Köteles n. 1975
Radically counterpointing the figurative movement, Róbert Köteles is one of those artists who revisits and persists in working with non¬figurative painting. Since early on in his career, Róbert Köteles has started working with a filigreed weaving called „Clipa”, a virtually untranslatable term from Romanian, meaning „still moment”; it relates to both time and space, both active in a pregnant state of new shapes and moments that start diverging, colliding and ultimately shaping our reality. The artist continuously and obsessively tests this state of matter that exists underneath the surface of our perception. So thorough is his search, so unrelenting is the urgency of his artworks, that while he seizes “Clipa” in intricate geometrical webbings, so does “Clipa” seize him in its endless possibilities of genesis.
Róbert Köteles’S first series began in 1999, with his graduation project which thereafter inspired a complete dedication in non-figurative painting, thus inscribing in the descent of Timișoara’s artistic experiments, following in the footsteps of his professor at the University, the notable Romanian artist, Constantin Flondor, one of the founding members of the Sigma group.
„Clipa” was composed of geometrical shapes and patterns, in freehand drawings in ink or acrylic on canvas. The absence of mechanical accuracy makes his early works feel organic, but also translates the tireless repeated motions of the artist’s pattern-making, ever-shifting and making itself extant.
What followed was a generative period, with colours exploding from the network, fading into contours of weavings and merging in gradients of watercolor over the ink-drawn surfaces. His artworks did not just organically shape, but started twisting, bulging and stretching over sculptural surfaces (wrapped paper, curling canvases or optical effects under the effect of coloured glass or soap bubbles).
Starting with 2010, the grid named “Clipa” sunk into shapes of colours and near-perfect geometrical constructions with ink and acrylic on canvas. No longer brought into plain sight, “Clipa” was shaped by angular traces of colour in blue, red, yellow, black and white, deepening the abstract momentum of Róbert Köteles’s work.
His most recent series, Mater explores a new topography of a map without its territory, where the geography of reality does not explore the politics of an environment, but the environment itself as what it is and not of how it could be appropriated.
Róbert Köteles’ approach discloses its instruments and deconstructs them up to their constitutive elements (the point, the line, the stroke of colour). Once decomposed, those primary signs become vectors of a complex reasoning which places spatiality and temporality at the core of his discourse.
Solo exhibitions
Mater, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
Dialogic Silence, Club Electroputere, Craiova, Romania
Meet the artist, The Ark, Bucharest, Romania
Pending, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
Kromo, Pal Art Gallery, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania
Centrum, Casa Artelor, Centrul Cultural Palatele Brâncovenesti, Mogosoaia, Romania
Forever, Calina Gallery, Timisoara, Romania
În fiintare, Pygmalion Gallery, Timisoara, Romania
Hyperceptie, ArTei Gallery, Hanul cu Tei, Timisoara, Romania
Group exhibitions
Upcoming: The Map is Not the Territory, ARCUB, Bucharest, Romania
The Privileged Eye, Vienna Contemporary, International Art Fair, Vienna, Austria (with Anca Poterasu Gallery)
Volta13 Basel, Switzerland (with Anca Poterasu Gallery)
The Map is Not the Territory, The Romanian Cultural Institute, Lisbon, Portugal
Opus 5, organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute RCI Vienna and the International Cultural Association Soleil de l’Est ,Viena, Austria 2015 Institute RCI Prague + Romanian Embassy in Slovak Republic and the International Cultural Association Soleil de l’Est , Slovakia
Snapshot Romania , Imago Mundi Luciano Benetton Collection, Treviso ,Italy
In Memoriam Stefan Calarasanu , Pygmalion Gallery , Timişoara , Romania
Annotations III – Painting Lessons , Constantin Flondor and Noima group , Academy of Economic Sciences, Romania
Annotations II – Painting Lessons , Constantin Flondor and Noima group, Mansarda Gallery of the Art Faculty in Timisoara, Romania
Annotations I – Painting Lessons ,Constantin Flondor and Noima group, Gallery 28, Timisoara, Romania
„Présences de la peinture contemporaine Roumaine en France avec Soleil de l’Est entre 2009-2012” at Banat Art Museum , Timişoara , Romania
Gărâna 2012 , exhibition organized by Herczeg Foundation at Art Museum from Banat, Timisoara, Romania
Art Market Budapest, Baril & Fabrica de pensule din Cluj Napoca , Budapesta , Hungary
Salon de peinture Roumanie Contemporaine, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris , France
Annotations – Painting Lessons , Constantin Flondor and Noima group , Curtea Veche Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
Set designer in the movie „ROCKER” , directed by Marian Crişan The Moldavian Salon, 12th edition, Contemporary Art Museum „George Apostu”, Bacău, Romania
Barrique Art : De Gustibus , organized by Herczeg Foundation in Romanian Culture Institute and the Tourism and Trade Industry Museum in Budapest, Hungary
International Painting Symposium in Gărâna, 2nd edition, organized by Foundation Herczeg , Romania
International Painting Symposium, 1st edition , Gyúla , Hungary
In the core of things, Art Museum from Cluj Napoca , Romania
Barrique Art :Art and Wineby Gustibus, Banat Art Museum, Timişoara , Romania
Romanian painters exhibition, in Galeria La Caserne, organized by Soleil de l’Est in Joue-les-Tours, France
Symposium International „Almási Béla”, 11th edition, Delta Gallery, Arad and Dorobanţi, Romania
International Painting Symposium, Gărâna, Romania
Romanian painters exhibition, organized by International Cultur Association Soleil de l’Est , in Foyer Main building of European de Brevete Office, Haga , Netherlands
In the core of things , Calina Gallery, Halele Timco, Timişoara , Romania
Romanian painters exhibition, organized by International Cultur Association Soleil de l’Est , Galerie des Deux Clochers , Saint-Genis-desFontaines, France
Artist in residence in Briare , Soleil de L’est, France
International Sculpture Symposium , KÖtegyán , Hungary
20 years anniversary, Halele Timco, Timişoara, Romania
Symposium International „Almási Béla”, Dorobanţi, Romania
From Bucureşti to Paris-A Panoramic View on Romanian Art, ParisDrouot Montaigne, France
Art director in the movie „Morgen”, directed by Marian Crişan , www.morgen.ro
8 after 10, Helios Gallery, Timişoara , Romania
International Sculpture Symposium, KÖtegyán, Hungary
International Art Symposium, Kétegyháza , Hungary
New Identities in the Romanian Painting and Sculpture after 1990, Dana Gallery, Iaşi , Romania
The Young Transylvanian Artists Exhibitions, The Culture Palace from Debrecen , Hungary
Romanian painters, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Armonia 12, the 12th edition of the Harmony Creative Workshop, organized by David Gheorghe and Elisabeta, Morareni, Romania
International Creative Worksho, Kétegyháza , Hungary
International Sculpture Workshop, KÖtegyán , Hungary
Intro, Delta Gallery, Arad, Romania
400, Anniversary Exhibition, Arany Palace , Salonta , Romania
Creative workshop, Biharkeresztes , Hungary
Two Artists, The Visual Arts Gallery , Oradea , Romania
International painting exhibition, Nagykörös, Hungary
The Art Salon, the Criş Region Museum , Oradea , Romania
Silence, exhibition organized together with director Marian Crişan, Arany Palace, Salonta, Romania
Attitude, Hellios Gallery, Timişoara , Romania
The Winnter Salon, Hellios Gallery, Timisoara, Romania
Ready Gala, The Art Museum , Timişoara, Romania
Est-West ,Vardy Gallery , Sunderland , United Kingdom
Threshold, Arany Palace, Salonta , Romania
Student Fest, Timişoara, Romania
Christmas Stat, 28 Gallery, Timişoara, Romania
The Tescani Creative Workshop, Romania
Symbol, Adam Müller Gutenbrun House, Timişoara, Romania
Student Fest, Timisoara, Romania
Jesus is Alive, University of the West, Timişoara, Romania
East –West, The Art Museum, Timişoara, Romania
Student Fest, Timişoara, Romania
Eminescu, Casa Universitarilor , Timişoara , Romani
The Macea Creative Workshop, jud Arad, Romania
Stages, Clio Hall, Arad, Romania
Landscape, Landtag des Saarlandes, Saarbrucken, Germany
Prizes
Nominated for the Gopo Prizes in Best Art Directo category for Morgen