By Marie Bungau

Throughout the month of May, the CWC Gallery in Berlin has been hosting Yoram Roth’s latest exhibition “Spatial Concepts”, bringing together his past work alongside his newest collection through more than 50 works. From “Spatial Concepts” (2017 – 2018) to a retrospective of his series “Brutalism” (2016), and “Personal Disclosure” (2014-2015).

While nude photography has been the focus of Roth since 2011, Spatial Concepts comes with a slightly different approach. Drawing inspiration from the “Spatialist” avant-garde artists from the 1960s like Lucio Fontana, Agostino Bonalumi, and Enrico Castellani, Roth combines photography with sculptural elements and modern manufacturing technology. Light still plays a major role in his work and it seems that every room of the exhibition has been set up in a way that both natural and artificial light fall on certain aspects of the work displayed as to emphasize a certain shape or texture that Roth worked on.

Starting with his series “Nudes in Steel”, Roth has been using the technique of cropping in order to layer the image and give the viewer the opportunity to focus on different parts of the composition. “Spatial Concepts” furthers explores this technique, adding contrasting texture through 3D elements which go outside the image. Rather than focusing on the erotic aspect of the nude photography, and playing with light, shadow, and texture, the human body remains a never-ending source of inspiration for Roth.

From the artist:

I have attempted to combine all these elements in my Spatial Concepts series. Fine art nude photography ties into the oldest art forms of humanity across the world, from prehistoric ‘Venus figurines’ to Indian cave paintings, which depict our bodies in their most vulnerable states and express ideals of beauty and other human qualities. This series pays its respects to the Italian Spatialists, who saw light in its rawest form, creating work that changed throughout the day as the sun moved across their manipulated canvas surfaces, at times sinuous, erotic, or even violent. Though the use of the most modern technology available allows me to make infinite copies, I make the artistic choice of producing only one, in the firm conviction that this art form should be considered as unique as painting, though the process may be different. (Yoram Roth, 2018)

The exhibition is open throughout June 9, 2018 at CWC Gallery, Auguststrasse 11 - 13, 10117 Berlin. Read more about the artist here: http://www.yoramroth.com/