Exhibition: Retrospective 2008-2022 – Selected Works – Maria Rapela
I would like to invite you this November 29, 2022 to the opening of a retrospective exhibition that I am organizing. In this exhibition I have selected some of the best acrylic works from different periods between 2008 (the year I arrived in Berlin) and other more recent works from 2022.
For space reasons not everything is here, but there is a significant sample of works and visual searches from different periods. Rarely have I had the opportunity to exhibit so many works in a single space in Berlin, as in group exhibitions, a small series is usually exhibited. That is why I would like to invite you to this opportunity, there will be a welcome wine.
Being an artist in Berlin
In 2008 I moved to Berlin to start my new life. Love attracted me to this city and I have been here ever since. But I was also attracted by the vibrant cultural and artistic life. Moving from a small tropical country to a big Nordic country was a radical change in my life. Decisions make you change your life and you have to assume those decisions.
Despite the difficulties, I decided to stay, fight and create as much as I can. It has not been easy, but life has its risks and those, too, must be assumed. Sometimes to survive you have to know how to adapt to the circumstances and needs of each moment and not lose the light that guides us on that path that is ours.
It has been a beautiful adventure, with difficulties, good moments and a lot of learning. I have met and learned a lot from each of the people I have met during this period, from the city, from the German culture and from this city full of creative people, art, science, technology and nature.
I invite you to see some works from this first Berlin period, where I have passed from being a young woman migrant amazed by the colors and shapes of the seasons, to a woman who considers herself a survivor with her last series Body continent. Shaping yourself without forgetting your fire and your inner path. Learning from every moment and every person that has passed through your life, grateful to life for all the opportunities it has given me.
If you want to know more about how has been the experience of coming as an artist to live in Berlin, I invite you to read the article I wrote for the magazine Ístmica of the National University of Costa Rica in 2021. (only in Spanish)
The exhibition
Until March 23, 2023, a retrospective exhibition of the pictorial work of the artist Maria Rapela will be on display at the center’s facilities. About 20 acrylic works on canvas hang on the two floors of our center. Colorful, abstract works with a particular handling of color will surprise you.
It can be seen from colorful abstract landscapes of the first period (Berlin Seasons), neo-figurative works, the series of watermelons and the new series Body Continent a series of abstract paintings.
The series of Berlin seasons tells us about the landscape and the temperature of Berlin in the different seasons. The work “The Fight“ or “the Mist“ talks about existential themes through a range of terracotta colors and pink colors. The series of Watermelons, of a sensibility of colors, transmits us stillness and at the same time emotions. The last serie, “Body Continent“ is of a more abstract character, refers us to the wounds that we all carry in life, that make us who we are, with our histories and particularities. “We are all survivors from evolution. Bodies, territories, with open wounds, drifting stories.“
Important information:
Address:
Linkstr. 8, 10785 Berlin
Gezundheitszentrum am Potsdamer Platz
Dates:
Opening: 29 November 2022
19:00-21:30
The exhibition runs until March 18, 2023
Monday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Friday from 9:00 to 14:00 hours
The exhibited works are for sale and you will be able to purchase them directly with me.