Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen explained

Birth Date:Carla Arocha:
Caracas, Venezuela
30 August 1961
Stéphane Schraenen:
Antwerp, Belgium
19 September 1971
Training:Carla Arocha:
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
Stéphane Schraenen:
AP Hogeschool Antwerpen
Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)
Movement:Sculpture, Installation art

Carla Arocha (born 30 October 1961) and Stéphane Schraenen (born 19 September 1971), also shortened to Arocha & Schraenen, are an artist duo that collaborates since 2006. Arocha & Schraenen work across media, producing paintings, drawings and prints. Large-scale mirrored and interactive sculptural installations are at the core of their collaborative project. Their abstract installations and sculptures stem from everyday objects. The artists strip such objects from functionality, thus reducing them to their basic essence and form. Engaging with the rich tradition of geometrical abstract and optical art, the artists’ works are often placed in a spatial context where light and reflection play a crucial role.[1]

Education and early career

Carla Arocha is born in Venezuela (Caracas), Arocha grew up in a family of lawyers, whose interest in the humanities and culture had an impact on her education. Moreover, the rich legacy of modern and contemporary art of her home country Venezuela, with Jesús Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Alejandro Otero, to name just a few, has left a profound impact on her as well as the architecture and public artworks scattered through the city of Caracas. In December 1979, she moved to Chicago where she studied biology at Saint Xavier University, Chicago, from which she obtained a Bachelor of Science (1986). After training as a biologist Carla Arocha radically changed course and steered her path to an artistic career, first studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts, SAIC School of the Art Institute (1991) before pursuing her studies for a Master of Fine Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago (1994).

Stéphane Schraenen born in Belgium (Antwerp), studied Communication and Journalism at the AP Hogeschool Antwerpen (1992–1994) and studied Graphic Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (1994–1996).

Arocha and Schraenen met in the late 2000s, and subsequently worked together in 2006 on a series of works for Carla Arocha's solo exhibitions Dirt at Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland and Chris at the Fonds régional d’art contemporain Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand.[2] Their first collaborative venture was the 2007 exhibition Marauders, Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago.[3] As they mentioned in an interview in 2014, a central part of their collaborative process is to 'exchange ideas, which are then completed and produced together'.[4]

Work

The work of Arocha & Schraenen is a constant enquiry on visual culture, modes of perception and, more broadly on reality itself. At the heart of their practice there is a question that remains; our place in the world and how it is manifested to us.[5] Their practice, which simultaneously draws and distance itself from earlier modernist traditions such as Abstract art, Minimalism and Opt Art,[6] is an investigation in the act of looking and meaning-making process.[7] They create highly controlled site-specific installations where our subjective experiences are tested by the continuous stimulation of our sensory and cognitive capacities.[8]

Arocha & Schraenen's work finds itself between the realm of abstraction and figuration. By altering pure abstract language, the artists introduce figurative elements and representational forms that disrupt traditional lineages and consequently open up new paths of formal and conceptual enquiry.

Arocha & Schraenen very often make use of reflective surfaces such as mirror and plexiglass that, by incorporating the surrounding space into the piece, allow them to investigate the depths of visual perception.[9] In applying mirrored surfaces in such an unusual fashion – i.e. everyday objects and geometric forms – the pieces fracture the space and invalidate the once stable set of parameters that defined it.[10] Reflecting surfaces spill out the space in which the pieces are places but also affect the viewer whose image is pulled apart. The artists explore all the possibilities of a space, perspective multiply and seemingly allow infinite combinations. There is a playful quality in their practice, one that tricks the eye and the expectations of the viewer.[11]

Exhibitions (selection)

Arocha and Schraenen had their first solo exhibition in 2007 at the Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago. After participating in the exhibitions such as Reflecting Another Space at The Agency Gallery in London, exhibition curated by Ken Pratt, and their solo exhibition Hier Waak ik at Centro de Arte Los Galpones in Caracas, exhibition curated by Jesus Fuenmayor, they became regulars on the international art scene.[12] In 2008 were included in the Brussels Biennial curated by Barbara Vanderlinden,[13] and in 2009 in The State of Things, and exhibition curated by Ai Wei Wei and Luc Tuymans in the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels,[14] and XIV Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador, Estructuras vivientes. El arte como experiencia plural, curated by Jesús Fuenmayor in 2019.[15]

Solo exhibitions by Arocha and Schraenen (selection)

Solo exhibitions by Carla Arocha (selection)

Personal lives and other activities

In 1995, Carla Arocha met Belgium painter Luc Tuymans while he was preparing his first exhibition in the United States at The Renaissance Society in Chicago. Four years later, in 1999 she moved to Belgium, where she married Tuymans. They live and work in Antwerp.[35]

Schraenen is the son of Guy Schraenen and Anne Marsily, founders of the publishing house Guy Schraenen éditeur and the Archive for Small Press & Communication (A.S.P.C. or ASPC), and the Galerie Kontakt, which Guy Schraenen ran from 1965 to 1978.[36] [37] [38] In 1992 he started modeling for Belgium fashion designers such as, among others, Walter Van Beirendonck,[39] Dries van Noten, Veronique Branquinho, and Nico Vandervoorst, many of which had previously studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp). From 1996 to 2006 he worked as assistant director, scenographer, production designer, graphic designer, and production manager on various exhibition, video and music projects, for example, the production coordination of the exhibition Joëlle Teurlinckx's exhibition at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, the exhibition scenography of the Dakar Biennale, 5ème Biennale de l’Art Africain, and exhibition coordination of the exhibition Monopolis/Antwerpen at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam.

In 2017 Arocha & Schraenen co-founded, with Luc Tuymans the artist-run non-for-profit art space CASSTL in Antwerp.

Public collections

Their individual and collective work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, U.S.,[40] Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), IL, U.S.,[41] Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium,[42] Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, U.S.,[43] Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, U.S., Fonds régional d’art contemporain Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France,[44] Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon, France, Stiftung Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,[45] Boca Raton, FL, U.S., Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Caja de Burgos (CAB), Burgos, Spain,[46] Benedictine University Art Collection, Chicago, IL, U.S., Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL, U.S., Fundación Banco Mercantil, Caracas, Venezuela., Anglo Irish Bank, Chicago, IL, U.S., The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL, U.S., Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago, IL, U.S., National Bank of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.[47]

References

Notes
  • BibliographyFor information about the collaborative work of Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen see:

    • For information about the early work of Carla Arocha see:

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Muhka.be. 20 January 2020.
    2. Web site: Carla Arocha – Stéphane Schraenen. Fundación Caja de Burgos. 29 January 2020.
    3. Web site: Marauders. Monique Meloche. 20 January 2020.
    4. Web site: Gesprekken met Hedendaagse Kunstenaars. Hildevancanneyt.blogspot.com. 14 August 2019.
    5. Book: Ferrer, Antoni. Untitled.
    6. Book: Philippe, Philippe. Carla Arocha: Dirt. Kunsthalle Bern. 2006. Bern.
    7. Web site: Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen: Persiana. Drake. Cathryn. 1 June 2015. ArtReview. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200807215532/https://artreview.com/march-2015-review-carla-arocha-and-stephane-schraenen/ . 7 August 2020 . 14 May 2020.
    8. Web site: Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, In a Rhythmic Fashion, October 8 – November 14, 2015. Mayne. Kate Christina. 14 May 2020. hapgallery.com/.
    9. Web site: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen. 15 May 2020. Kusseneers Gallery. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190930023204/http://kusseneerscom.webhosting.be:80/portfolio_page/arocha-schraenen/ . 30 September 2019 .
    10. Web site: Walk the Line. 15 May 2020. Artsy. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200129180747/https://www.artsy.net/show/galeria-maior-walk-the-line . 29 January 2020 .
    11. Web site: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen. Dessau. Ory. 12 August 2015. frieze. 15 May 2020.
    12. Web site: abracaracas.com. abracaracas.com. 20 January 2020.
    13. Web site: De Standaard. 20 January 2020.
    14. Web site: Vrt.be. 20 January 2020.
    15. Web site: Universes, Bienal de Cuenca, Entrevista con Jesús Fuenmayor, Curador general de la Bienal de Cuenca 2018. Chrissie Iles. 20 January 2020.
    16. Web site: Marauders. Monique Meloche. 20 January 2020.
    17. Web site: Undertrow. Kabe Contemporary. 20 January 2020.
    18. Web site: As if. Monique Meloche . 20 January 2020.
    19. Web site: Wako Works of art . Artinacia.com. 20 January 2020.
    20. Web site: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen, WHAT NOW ?. Galerie Isabella Czarnowska. 20 January 2020.
    21. Web site: Ltd Los Angeles. ltd Los Angeles . 20 January 2020.
    22. Web site: Kabe Contemporary. Kabe Contemporary. 20 January 2020.
    23. Web site: Cultuurcentrum – tentoonstellingszalen, Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen . Cultuurcentrum Mechelen. 20 January 2020.
    24. Web site: Frieze. 20 January 2020.
    25. Web site: Parasol-unit.org. Parasol unit. 20 January 2020.
    26. Web site: wsimag.com. Wsimag. 20 January 2020.
    27. Web site: Kusseneers Gallery. Kusseneers Gallery. 20 January 2020.
    28. Web site: The Suburban. The Suburban. 20 January 2020.
    29. Web site: Pulsar. Pulsar. 20 January 2020.
    30. Web site: Walk the Line. Artsy. 20 January 2020.
    31. Web site: moniquemeloche.com. Monique Meloche Gallery. 20 January 2020.
    32. Web site: moniquemeloche.com. Monique Meloche Gallery. 20 January 2020.
    33. Web site: Kunsthalle Bern. Kunsthalle Bern. 20 January 2020.
    34. Web site: Carla Arocha – Chris. FRAC, Fonds regional d’art contemporain Auvergne. 20 January 2020.
    35. Web site: demorgen.be. Kunstenares Carla Arocha kijkt met bang hart naar situatie in haar geboorteland. 14 August 2019.
    36. Web site: 'ik was meteen verkocht'. tijd.be. 22 January 2020.
    37. Web site: Guy Schraenen éditeur. guyschraenenediteur.com. 28 January 2020.
    38. Web site: Guy Schraenen. guyschraenenediteur.com. 22 January 2020.
    39. News: The New York Times. The Strange and Beautiful Universe of Walter Van Beirendonck. 3 September 2019 . 29 January 2020 . Force . Thessaly La .
    40. Web site: Carla Arocha. Museum of Modern Art New York . 10 January 2020.
    41. Web site: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. 10 January 2020.
    42. Web site: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen. Museum Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA). 3 January 2020 .
    43. Web site: Carla Arocha. 14 October 1961 . Art Institute of Chicago. 3 January 2020.
    44. Web site: Carla Arocha. 14 January 2020.
    45. Web site: Sammlung, Carla Arocha (*1961 Venezuela). 14 January 2020.
    46. Web site: CARLA AROCHA Y STÉPHANE SCHRAENEN"After". 12 January 2020.
    47. Web site: CARLA AROCHA Y STÉPHANE SCHRAENEN"After". 4 January 2020.

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen".

    Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.