Unexpected Territory explores the thoughtfully unplanned nature shared by the works of three different artists: Ekta, Eltono and Mattia Lullini. The unexpected is a powerful and ever-present element in their work, either embraced or fought, it becomes one with the concept, it leads the hand and makes the work alive in the struggle of the mind confronted with the irrational pattern of chance.
Ekta’s abstract and semi—abstract works are characterised by an incessantly over-layering and erasing process. His works reflect a constant struggle, the search for balance and the frustration once is reached, the pursuit of the perfect composition and the instantaneous need of destroying it. The unexpected becomes a temporary reconciliation with the work, what makes it finished in it’s deliberate unfinishedness.
Eltono embraces the chance as fundamental part of his process focusing on the interactions with the ever-changing surroundings and the people inhabiting them. His conceptual approach and empiric process implies the impossibility to entirely predict the results, and leads to numberless variations which the artist maps into series of potentially infinite and powerful combinations of geometrical elements.
Mattia Lullini works as if he was cutting and re-assembling pieces from a layered, coloured fantasy, allowing his vision to organically shape itself on the surface. He deliberately lets his hand and his mind be driven by the unconscious, which lead the way to a spontaneous yet accurate composition. His relationship with the unconscious part of the creation it’s so strong that brings him to the point of working in a sort of lucid dreaming way, creating poignant abstract compositions.
Unexpected Territory is an invitation for these three practitioners to confront themselves on a familiar yet never safe territory, to venture further and fearlessly explore — on their own artistic terms — the realm of chance, in an exhibition showing different approaches to abstract art meeting the infinite paths of the unexpected.
Daniel Götesson (b. 1978), known as Ekta, is a Swedish artist, currently based in Gothenburg. His works have been exhibited all over Europe and his murals can be found across the continent in countries such as Croatia, Poland and England. Amongst other projects, Götesson has recently worked on several public art commissions of varying scale for various municipalities in Sweden.
French artist Eltono (b. 1975) worked in Madrid for the last decade, then in Beijing for four years and now lives in southern France. He has worked in the street of more than ninety cities and has shown his works in many world-renowned galleries and museums, including the Tate Modern, The Somerset House, Fundacion Miro and Artium Museum. Over the last twelve years, the development of Eltono’s work in galleries has focused on finding solutions to address the problems of showing public art in private indoor spaces.
Mattia Lullini (b. 1985) is an Italian artist currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has exhibited his works and painted murals across the globe, including in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, India, China, Taiwan and South Korea, where he was invited for the Busan Biennale 2015. Embracing a multimedia approach Lullini’s artistic production features murals, indoor and outdoor installations, paintings and works on paper.