Igor Moritz
Roses and CastlesFebruary 25 - March 21, 2021
︎ images
︎ a conversation between Thierry Goldberg Gallery and Igor Moritz
Thierry Goldberg is pleased to
present Roses and Castles, an online
exhibition of works by Igor Moritz. The exhibition will be on view from February
25th through March 21st, 2021.
Roses and Castles, comprised of seven oil on linen paintings and three colored
pencil drawings, captures the subtle thoughts and feelings inhabiting the minds
of Igor Moritz, his friends, and his family. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic,
Moritz would repeatedly paint those closest to him to document their changes
over time, not just physically, but emotionally – as felt through color and
imagined surroundings. By portraying intimate figures in his life Moritz keeps
track of how his close circle evolves and how the individuals themselves change.
Accordingly, Moritz’s paintings act as a visual diary: capturing the people and
energy of his surroundings and his subjective experiences in his life.
Similar to how Moritz returns to his subjects, Moritz also returns
to himself. Included among his portraits are By the Canal (2021) and Bench (2021), the artist’s self-portraits
in the exhibition. Moritz works on a self-portrait each month, cycling back a
dozen times a year to study his own face and how it changes, just like how he
does for his other sitters. His self-portraits also act as a marker of time and
development in his practice. By painting the same subject (himself) as a
monthly ritual, he can track how his practice develops through time,
technically and creatively. In this way, Moritz is setting boundaries in order
to push them. By painting the same subject multiple times, he must always
confront a new means to represent them. These new representations, thick with
coats of paint, metaphorically show how Moritz is layering on new stories and
interpretations of his sitters and himself.
Since the energy in Moritz’s works is often dictated by where he
is living, his current life in London informed by the pandemic has invoked a
gloomy blue tint to many of his works in the exhibition. Reflecting on his
surroundings, Moritz has primarily portrayed his subjects in gritty London
streets and parks. In other works such as Roses and Castles (2021), Moritz paints his subjects by
canals and infused with colors and designs resembling the iconic British narrowboat
style. The melding of these two quintessentially British visual languages
places Moritz’s portraits properly in their London context.
While playing with these two visual languages, Moritz
simultaneously uses color and gesture to portray a romantic loneliness and
introspection in his figures. Most of his figures stand and sit alone, and even
when grouped together, like in Talk (2021), they seem internally alone. This
brings up a compelling dichotomy in Moritz’s work: he creates scenes in which
figures appear in moments alone, when in reality, it is moments of connection that
lead to these perceptive portrayals.
Igor Moritz (b. 1996, Lublin,
Poland) lives and works in London, United Kingdom. He has had solo exhibitions
at Nil Gallery, Paris, France and Unisex Gallery, Montreal, Canada. Mortiz’s
work has been included in group exhibitions at Lundgren Gallery, Palma de
Mallorca, Spain; Guts Gallery, London, United Kingdom; Gedney Common, London,
United Kingdom; Beers, London, United Kingdom; and Delphian Gallery, London,
United Kingdom among others. His work is in the collection of Espacio SOLO,
Madrid Spain and Rad Hourani Foundation, Montreal, Canada. This is Moritz’s
first show with Thierry Goldberg Gallery.
For more information please email or call the gallery at + 1.
212.228.7569 or info@thierrygoldberg.com.