Christian Rosa (B. 1982)

Untitled is characteristic for the reductivist and eloquent approach to abstract painting that Brazilian born contemporary artist Christian Rosa has become known for. A fast-rising artist, Rosa was prominently featured in the group exhibitions Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America at the Saatchi Gallery London in 2014. Playing with the formal legacy of such great Abstract painters as Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian and citing the lyrical abstraction of Cy Twombly and the automatism of Joan Miro, Rosa explores the archaeology of painting by creating abstract pictorial universes with a raw energy that is simultaneously reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Using pencil, charcoal, spray and oil paint, Rosa allows disparate black squares, gestural calligraphic squiggles, marks and blotches of primary colour, suggestive of anthropomorphic forms, to float across the large canvas. With his unique punk rebelliousness, however, Rosa dispenses with the rules of high Modernism. By incorporating the notion of failure and chance as a guiding conceptual model into his paintings, he allows for emotive, visual experience and gives rise to open-ended works that encourage the viewer towards more interior contemplation and modes of enquiry.