The National Museum of Modern Art concludes its exhibition program in 2023 with Raffaela Zenoni’s exhibition titled The Other Ancestral Gallery at the Josip Račić Gallery. This contemporary visual artist was born and raised in Altdorf, the capital of the canton of Uri in Switzerland. She completed her painting studies in 2008 at the Studio HC, Independent Academy for Music, Dance, and Art in Bern. In addition to the Andalusian town of Gaucin - where she resides when not in Zagreb - she has shown her work in Switzerland (Bern, St. Moritz, Zürich), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart), Belgium (Brussels), and Luxembourg (Echternach).
For the first presentation of her artistic work in Zagreb, the artist has selected a dozen powerful, colourful portraits from the eponymous cycle, executed using acrylic painting on canvas, and an anthropomorphic, monochromatic sculpture - whose elongated, slender volume, according to art historian Branko Franceschi, evokes memories of Giacometti's attenuated figures.
(...) Returning to the paintings we are showcasing, the title of the series and the exhibition provides the key to their full understanding - the concept of other. Who or what does this other family truly represent? Raffaela Zenoni does not mystify her work. When asked about the identities of the portrayed individuals, this other family, it turns out that they are non-existent, fictional characters who came into existence by being filtered and shaped through her gestures and the colours at her disposal. These paintings are the only form of existence which they experience in our reality. (...) - wrote Branko Franceschi, the Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, in the foreword to the accompanying bilingual catalogue, also responsible for the exhibition’s visual layout.
Raffaela Zenoni’s exhibition at the Josip Račić Gallery will remain on view until 10 January 2024.
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb