New Collection

New Collection
In recent months, Galerie Ra – along with its own exhibition programme, including new collections by Karl Fritsch, Pavel Opocenski, Peter Hoogeboom and Therese Hilbert – has shown a selection of work by gallery artists at three major fairs: Object in Rotterdam, Frame in Munich and Collect in London. Having been hosted by the V&A museum for the past five years, Collect 2009 was held at the spacious and exquisitely restored Saatchi Galleries.

These fairs present an ideal opportunity to bring artists’ work and the profile of Galerie Ra under the attention of a new, wider international public. For the artists the events are also an added incentive to make and submit new work, thus completely updating and lending new vigour to Galerie Ra’s collection.

We also have a new gallery artist: Melanie Bilenker. Her work garnered much interest and admiration at Collect, and the National Museum of Scotland bought one of her brooches. It is highly personal work, due to the nature of the still images as well as the unusual technique and material used: Melanie’s drawings are made from human hair embedded in resin. In the same way lockets of hair were used in the Victorian era to keep the memory alive of a lost loved one, Melanie holds on to her own memories in her jewellery.

Paul Derrez