Painting of tennis player Gulbis in Vienna gallery June 02
A Ritums Ivanovs painting of Latvian Nr. 1 tennis pro mr. Ernests Gulbis, which gained recognition during its first show in Doha, Qatar, is now being exhibited in Knoll Gallery Wien, Austria, at the exhibition of Portraits and Self-portraits in Private Collections, curated by Liliana Popescu 
"In many cases contemporary art from the East sails to the West. This time the opportunity to frame Eastern and Southeastern European art is presented by Vienna, certainly a one-of-a-kind city in Europe, a quintessential place for the diffusion of contemporary art.
Despite these turbulent times, the art market is continuously expanding, and more and more frequently the rainfall of contemporary discourse emphasizes the new prospects in the emerging markets.
This exhibition at Knoll Gallery brings together contemporary artworks from private collections in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. Alongside loans from prominent private collections, the exhibition includes artworks from young collectors, and it aims to draw attention to the phenomenon of art collecting in these countries.
With a focus on Romanian private collections, the exhibition presents a selection of works by the most renowned Romanian artists on an international scale, but also some works by young, emerging artists, comprising mostly paintings, drawings, and photographs and offering a daring sample of recent art collections.
The exhibition highlights works by Romanian artists such as Ana Bănică, Răzvan Boar, Alina Buga, Cătălin Burcea, Raul Cio, Nicolae Comănescu, Teodor Graur, Oana Lohan, Gili Mocanu, Roman Tolici, and Ecaterina Vrana. It is a joint introduction to art collecting, a collaborative effort to show these excerpts from private collections and to offer valuable insight on the role of leading art collectors from Bucharest, Budapest, Riga, Varna, Tallinn, and Vilnius.
Liliana Popescu (born 1975 in Bucharest) lives and works in Bucharest. In 1997, Liliana Popescu graduated from Bucharest University’s Faculty of Communication Sciences, where she then taught for ten years. She also holds a degree in Law since 2003. She is currently doing a PhD in Art Economics at Bucharest’s National Institute of Economic Research. From 2002 to 2008, she organized numerous exhibitions for the city’s H’art Gallery, working with emerging international artists. From 2008 to 2010, she was director of Point Contemporary, Bucharest, where she presented works by young Romanian artists. She is presently running Prospekt, the city’s newest gallery.
curated by_vienna 2011 is a project that commissions cooperations between 21 Vienna´s leading contemporary art galleries and internationally renowned curators.
Under the title EAST by SOUTH WEST this year´s project takes as its starting point the importance and relevance of Vienna for Eastern and South-Eastern European contemporary art and artists".
More info: Knoll Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Hans Knoll
Gumpendorfer Strasse 18
1060 Vienna, Austria
T: +43/1/5875052
M: +43/664/1810848
F: +43/1/5875966
office@knollgalerie.at
