TROTOAR is pleased to present That’s What’s Up!, a group exhibition curated by Saša Bogojev. The exhibition showcases works by a captivating roster of international artists, each bringing a distinct vision and approach to contemporary figurative painting. Participating artists include Sara Birns, Tim Brawner, Martyn Cross, Sara-Vide Ericson, Julius Hofmann, Timothy Lai, Danica Lundy, Laurent Proux, Javier Ruiz Pérez, Kristof Santy, Dennis Scholl, Kristina Schuldt, and Christian Rex Van Minnen.
“In the past few decades, Croatia’s complex and intense socio-political situation significantly slowed the recognition and affirmation of local artists globally. The reintegration into global life dynamics took a long time, and during all those years, the generations of Croatian artists grew in a very particular setting. As we see nowadays, those crippling circumstances transformed with time into an advantage and the foundation for distinctiveness. And as we’re witnessing young Croatian artists making their mark on the global scene, this exhibition aims to shift the narrative further and introduce the works of some of the most exciting emerging international painters to the Croatian art crowd.
Croatian-born and raised writer and curator Saša Bogojev has curated an energizing and absorbing exhibition. In collaboration with the newly established Trotoar Gallery in Zagreb, they’re aiming to fuel the further development of the scene. By exploring the artists’ techniques, concepts, visual languages, and backgrounds, the presentation offers a relevant selection of works for local artists and art enthusiasts alike. These include works nodding at pivotal moments in history of paintings (Van Minnen, Birns), works influenced by technology or contemporary aesthetics (Hofmann, Brawner), painterly languages that emphasize surface and texture (Cross, Lai, Ericsson, Ruiz, Santy), visuals that push reality to the edge of surrealism or even further (Scholl, Schuldt), or those where the rules of the material world and common sense are rendered irrelevant (Proux, Lundy). So, by exposing the next generations to remarkable works by their recognized peers from around the globe, That’s what’s up! hopes to provide another link between local and global efforts.”
– from text by Saša Bogojev
