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Untitled with the yellows, orange & blues by Veronika Rovegno |
Bold pieces of canvas lined the interior of a
white room, in a newly constructed building in Masaki, Dar es Salaam. In a
painting exhibition titled ‘Hide & Seek’ by Veronika Rovegno, a native Tanzanian
who returned to her homeland in 2014, after a stint of 15 years in New York.
“I’ve been painting since I think I was 5 but I
always used to paint for myself as a passion. Then every time I showed people
my paintings, they were like ‘wowe I really love this’. I wasn’t confident
enough to put it out there, for me it’s like my dirty laundry because I paint
my feelings, my experiences…” Veronika
This is Veronika’s debut exhibition in Tanzania; she
doesn’t have any formal training as a painter. “I had no teachers they wouldn’t
paint this crazy stuff, no I just love expressing myself...” Indeed by day
Veronika is the PR Manager at Aggrey & Clifford Advertising Agency.
Veronika posing next to her painting 'Hide & Seek' as isthe title of this her debut exhibition recently in Masaki, DSM |
I am glad she had the courage to put her artworks
for the public as she definitely has a talent, the works she exhibited were
produced since September 2014. “All of these were painted since I came back
here, actually err ‘Hide & Seek’ is my time coming here, kind of hiding,
kind of re-knowing myself and rebuild myself, getting to know things, you know
trying new stuff and a new life, this is that phase of my life.” Veronika
Looking at her paintings here, they are
organically or wholly abstract save for one ‘31East, 31st Street,
Sometimes I miss you’, an expressionist depicting buildings & a night
skyline in blues & yellows. Which the artist explains was the view from her
apartment, while she was in NY.
Untitled-with the yellow mustard background by Veronika Rovegno at her debut exhibition in Dar 'Hide & Seek' |
The artist succeeds in giving complementing colour
arrangements, her use of acrylics, oil, grease & sand as mediums with the
application of tooth brushes, sponge, twigs & the occasional paint brush on
canvas. Intentionally invites the audience to plunge into the plethora of her
moods.
She’s still to master her style as there was a
lack of consistency in her works, indeed she put up this exhibition by herself,
without the guidance of a curator. Paintings like ‘Untitled’ (With black trunks
over a mustard yellow background); ‘New York Traffic Jam’, the expressionist
‘…Sometimes I miss you’; ‘Run Away with me 2 the greens3!’(The one with a dirty
green organic forest) and ‘Untitled’ (with the bright yellows, orange &
blues); well amplify her obvious talent.
'New York Trafic Jam' by Veronika Rovegno |
“The skill of a painter is often revealed in the
strength and confidence of his line (outline), creating and delineating the
various shapes in her picture.”-Neil
Collins, Art Editor of arts-cork.com. It’s here that Veronika can improve
as well by accepting the grand feat of working on a large canvas. Which
requires extra points in composition (the layout and optical harmony of a painting),
the composition in several of Veronika’s artworks can still improve. Bearing in
mind a mistake on a big canvas is more glaring than on a smaller one.
That said knowing the rocky industry of fine art
in the country; Veronika has certainly covered a significant milestone with her
debut exhibition. For one despite her works fetching steep prices for our
market (averaging at 2000USD), by the time I left the opening ceremony of this
exhibit ( on the12th May’16); already three paintings were sold, one
for 350USD, another at 1000USD and the other at 3500USD.
'31East, 31st Street, Sometimes I miss you'-- By Veronika Rovegno |
Veronika (left) posing with her friend Joy Alliy at the opening of 'Hide & Seek' |
Veronika's Son adding visual interest to the already beautiful artworks by his mom at 'Hide & Seek' Article was first published in The East African Newspaper http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/Veronika-bares-her-feelings-in-Hide-or-Seek/-/434746/3211990/-/2xv376/-/index.html |
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