Roman Wolgin

Roman Wolgin’s graduation show at the Rijksakademie in 2004, presented a series of paintings with the collective title, ‘Seraphim Rose Before Becoming a Monk’(2004). These paintings depicted scenes from the life of the highly-venerated monk, Seraphim Rose, a leading figure in the Russian Orthodox Church despite living on the West Coast of America. Born Eugene Denis Rose, the monk was a sometime San Francisco beatnik and Buddhist before going on to found a religious community and printing press in the wilds of Northern California. Wolgin’s paintings included intricately composed portraits of Rose both pre and post-conversion, sometimes with text from his substantial body of writing laid over the figure. The series is, like all of Wolgin’s work, steeped in ambiguity. It is not clear what position the artist takes with respect to Rose’s conversion. Instead it seems that it is the act of transformation that preoccupies Wolgin.

Transformation might take one of two forms. We either deliberately choose to change identity and become someone completely different, or occasionally, the consequences of mistaken identity are thrust upon us. At the Voltashow, Basel 2006, STORE presented Wolgin’s work, ‘Someone Else’, a series of seven paintings presented as one work. Each painting was a portrait of a single figure looking directly at the viewer. The figures included Martin Kippenberger, Kate Moss, Slobodan Milosevic and Wolgin himself but scrawled across each painting was a text denying that particular identity. Kippenberger’s features were obscured with dripping black capital letters proclaiming: ‘ITS NOT MARTIN KIPPENBER [sic] ITS SOMEONE ELSE’. Kate Moss received the same slandering treatment. The words across her delicate features read: ‘ITS NOT MOSS [sic] MOSS [sic] ITS SOMEONE ELSE’.

Again the theme is personal transformation, but the intimacy of this act means that no conclusions are offered. Instead the figures in the paintings seem to have an understanding with each other – a shared secret history of what happens when your identity changes into something quite unexpected. Wolgin’s debut solo exhibition at Diana Stigter Gallery, Amsterdam, also referenced transformation but through a different conceptual axis, representing female figures from cultural history, including Salome and Manet’s Olympia re-presented as dark, gothic monstrosities. In other paintings the earlier imagery of the Russian Orthodox church morphed into swastikas. The entirely monochrome show was entitled ‘Misunderstanding II’, again foregrounding ambiguity.

‘Hell is others’ is Roman Wolgin’s debut solo London exhibition. It is also the inaugural show at STORE’s new premises at 27 Hoxton Street. For further information please contact either Louise Hayward or Niru Ratnam on info@storegallery.co.uk or on +44 207 729 8171.

Pressetext

Roman Wolgin
HELL IS OTHERS