JANA BRIKE “FOREVER AND A DAY”
8 Oct - 15 Nov 2022
On the occasion of the beginning of the 15th year from its foundation Dorothy Circus Gallery Rome is extremely proud to present for the first time in its own space a solo exhibition by the contemporary painter Jana Brike titled Forever and A Day.
As a women founded and runned industry Dorothy Circus has always spread social values and stood for the bold, the impact and the change. Jana Brike’s Art is dearly rooted in the gallery core concept which has always directed its efforts towards curating exhibitions that focused on the return of the female narratives in Art, with particular attention to women artists bringing the public attention to the female voice as the narrator and the connector of humanity. Sensitive topics of feminism, gender equality and women's rights have been emphasised through the gallery’s curatorial programme, which also recently dedicated particular attention to maternal relations and female iconography in the art world with the major collective exhibition ‘Mother and Child’ held both in Rome and London also featuring Jana Brike’s painting “the Peaceful Warrior”.
Rich in metaphor and symbolism, Brike's new beautifully crafted body of paintings read like visual poetry brimming with meaning, unfolding like tales of growth and transformation. Within the 12 brand new artworks presented, detailed dreamscapes show female figures, in playful and unselfconscious discovery of the world around them. There is often a juxtaposition of harshness with hope in her paintings, with figures showing bloody scratches, incisions or redness on their skin and surrounded by butterflies or flowers. Vulnerability and intimacy is also an important characteristic of Brike’s work. Nakedness and nature often go together in her paintings, and Brike has described the human body as ‘vulnerability in its nakedness’. The frequently portrayed adolescent girls, sometimes depicted in scenes of erotic exploration are metaphors for the continual discovery of ourselves and represent the growth we all do throughout our lives no matter what our biological age or gender. Her works in this way act as a paean to free-spirited femininity, a celebration of Earth and nature, and freedom from oppression that rises like the purest choir we all urge to join in.