Maria Kreyn: CHRONOS
15 April, 2024 – 22 June, 2024
MON ART FOUNDATION
St. George’s Anglican Church
(Chiesa di San Giorgio)
Venice
Ministry of Nomads Art Foundation (MON) is pleased to present Maria Kreyn’s solo exhibition CHRONOS: ten monumental new oil paintings by the American artist installed in the historic St. George’s Anglican Church (Chiesa di San Giorgio). A collateral event of the 60th international art exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, the exhibition is curated by Maria Vega and MON Art Foundation and runs from Monday 15 April to Saturday 22 June 2024, with an opening reception on Tuesday 16 April.
Heightened by the ecclesiastical setting of an active Anglican church, CHRONOS immerses the viewer in a meditation on the material nature of time, reflecting on turbulent weather systems and our fragile human connection with the atmosphere. Kreyn’s latest body of luminous, large-scale landscape works combine the artist’s signature crisp brushwork and angular lines with dramatic movement and flourishes of colour. This new suite of oil paintings is inspired by ancient Greek mythology, the omnipotence of the elements of nature, and the climate crisis.
Across several works, a recurring motif of ovoid shapes invokes the Orphic creation myth, according to which the god Chronos — the personification of time and the first living being — spawned Aether (Ether), Chaos, and a cosmic silver egg. The cosmic egg – a metaphor for creation and potential found in many other cultures to explain the birth of the universe – becomes a powerful symbol for Kreyn, to contemplate the possibility of regeneration, renewal, and change.
Moving from bright bursts of lights, other works employ a menacing, fiery palette to herald a more troubling, but equally compelling, visual experience. Kreyn reprises the Romantic tradition and its celebration of the sublime power of nature in works that are both playful and foreboding, landscapes that evoke sea and sky, chaos, and calculation. These otherworldly works capture a sense of collective anxiety in the face of extreme weather and climate change — a dazzling vision of a terrifying, looming, universal threat.
Maria Kreyn: CHRONOS opens on the 15th April, 2024 until the 22nd of June, 2024 at St. George’s Anglican Church (Chiesa di San Giorgio)
©2024 MON ART FOUNDATION
Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.
