Riga Gallery will participate at international art exhibition BUDAPEST ART FAIR 2010 Heroes Corner Section (Mücsarnok, Dózsa György utca 37, 1146 Budapest) with RITUMS IVANOVS painting "Madonna on stage" which is published on exhibitions web: www.budapestartfair.hu.

25 Galleries to Showcase the Best of Central & Eastern Europe

HEROES CORNER:

RAISING THE CURTAIN

No fewer than 25 galleries from 12 different countries are taking part in the 2010 Budapest Art Fair – in a special new section devoted to the art of Central & Eastern Europe: HEROES CORNER.

As well as honouring the pioneering efforts of the region's artists and galleries, HEROES CORNER refers to the Fair’s venue: the Belle Epoque Mücsarnok (Art Hall) on grandiose Hősök Tere (Heroes' Square), situated at the far end of Andrassy Avenue, the 'Champs-Elysées of Central Europe.'

HEROES SQUARE has also been adopted as the new name for the Budapest Art Fair – which was founded in 1994 and this year splits into two separate events, with furniture and objets d’art granted their own fair, Antik Enteriőr, at the Ethnography Museum.

Meanwhile the rebranded flagship event – Budapest's Modern & Contemporary Art Fair – remains on… HEROES SQUARE.

In total some sixty galleries, half from Hungary, will be exhibiting at HEROES SQUARE Budapest Art Fair. The fair runs November 25-28 (VIP opening November 24).

BUDAPEST: WHERE WEST MEETS EAST

The Budapest Art Fair has a track record in attracting prominent foreign galleries. Prestigious past exhibitors include Pascal Lansberg (Paris), Galerie Hilger (Vienna), Le Minotaure (Paris/Tel Aviv), Knoll (Vienna/Budapest/Moscow), and Gilden’s Arts (London) – to name but a few.

Now the Fair aims to exploit Budapest’s position as an international crossroads by filling an existing vacuum: the absence of a flagship contemporary fair for Central & Eastern Europe. 

Inspired by the Tremplin (Springboard) section at the 2010 Paris Biennale, the new HEROES CORNER section will feature 20 of the most dynamic modern and contemporary art galleries in Central and Eastern Europe, plus five Western galleries specializing in East European art.

Each gallery will display a single work on a special stand in the centre of the Fair. Gallery owners will be present throughout the Fair to meet visitors and talk about their artists.

The twelve countries represented on HEROES CORNER are Bosnia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and, from the West, France, Switzerland and the USA.

The geographical sweep on HEROES CORNER ranges from Sarajevo (Duplex/10m²) up to Riga (Alma, Tifāna, Rīgas)… and from New York (Art-Fira) across to Ekaterinburg in the Urals (Art-Slovar).

EASTERN PROMISE: ALL STYLES & MEDIA

The works on offer on HEROES CORNER span a 75-year period, from a 1935 Portrait of a Girl by Pavel Filonov's student Vladimir Luppian (Na Lenivke, Moscow) to a host of 'hot-off-the-press' works produced in 2010, including Sandor Bartha's In The Park (Ivan Gallery, Bucharest); Ritums Ivanovs' Madonna On Stage (Rīgas Galerija, Riga); and Kandinsky & Melamid's Russian Sudoku (Art-Fira, New York).

Some paintings are overtly Political, like Tara von Neudorf's Don't Let Your Dreams Fall Asleep, with its Russian flag and USSR logo (Anaid Art, Bucharest), or Yevgeniy Fiks' Portrait of US Community Party member Esther Moroze (Barbarian, Zurich). Some are more Philosophical, like Łukasz Jastrubcz's The End  (Pies, Poznan) and Valery Chtak's Why Is This Happening? (Paperworks, Moscow). Others are Geographical, like Vladimir Migachov's Black Sea (Russkiy Mir, Paris); or Escapist, like Konstantin Batynkov's tiny Tarzan in a black-and-white jungle (VP-Studio, Moscow).

HEROES CORNER will provide a unique, thought-provoking overview of the finest artistic talent to have blossomed since the fall of the Iron Curtain.

A strong photography section features six galleries, with startling images like Katya Belkina's naked self-portrait on horseback, inspired by Petrov-Vodkin's Bathing the Red Horse (Fotoloft, Moscow); a harrowing depiction of Vladimir Putin by World Press Photo Award-winner Sergey Maximishin (RussianTeaRoom, Paris); and Boštjan Pucelj's triptych Missing In Action (Fotografija, Ljubljana).

Also available on HEROES CORNER will be graphic art, video (Adriana Jebeleanu'sCopy Paste at Little Yellow Studio, Bucharest, Alina Gutkina's My Mom at GMG of Moscow), and a variety of sculpture – from Paolo Vivian's iron Bar Code (Bulart, Varna – Bulgaria) and Małgorzata Warlikowska's six-part ceramic/silkscreen Eat Your Brain Out (Galeria BB, Krakow), to Olaf Brzeski's porcelain plates (Czarna, Warsaw) and Nazar Bilyk's tall glass and fibre-glass figure Rain (Black Square, Kiev/New York).

One of Eastern Europe's newest art galleries, Prospekt of Bucharest, will be taking part – and one of the region's oldest, Slovakia's Gandy Gallery, founded (in Prague) 18 years ago. 'Central Europe deserves a great fair!' enthuses gallery owner Nadine Gandy.

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To oversee the new section, and develop the Budapest Art Fair’s international profile, the Fair has appointed Simon Hewitt as International Advisor. Mr Hewitt is an Oxford University-trained art historian based in Geneva, and a respected international art critic with many years’ experience writing for Art + Auction and other leading American, British, French and Russian specialist publications. He says: ‘Budapest Art Fair is one of the oldest and most firmly established art fairs in Eastern Europe, and I admire the determination of owners Sandor & Kati Galambos to establish the Fair as the leading event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. These are exciting times, and I am thrilled at this opportunity to help bring international artists, gallerists and collectors to HEROES SQUARE.’

for images and further information please contact Viktória Vető 

+36 20 411 3504 – press@budapestartfair.hu