Super Mario and World of Warcraft visiting Regensburg

    REGENSBURG, GERMANY, November 02, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The new works by Ivana Koubek, dedicated to video games, are technically and colorfully daring. A total of three monumental canvases, each 3.5 m high, and thirty large and small works on paper occupy half of the exhibition space. Not only thematically, but also by using garish neon colors from the virtual worlds of video games, they stand in complete contrast to the ground tones of her older works. It is not for nothing that Koubek devotes herself to the subject of gaming in the works created in 2019/2020: with up to 60% of the population playing video games, the subject is highly topical and exciting for every generation. The main focus is on the emotions and feelings of video gaming. Joy, success, as well as fear and anger, which players feel when playing video games, become the leitmotif. With enthusiasm, they enter the attractive worlds of video games, in which reality and virtuality unite to form a momentary reality.

Thus, five emotionally charged faces of the players can be seen on the screen The Game Controllers. Their avatars Super Mario, Link, Pokémon characters Pikachu and Sannah, and the battle bus from Fortnite stand for the history of video games. The title of the picture refers to the composition of the grid-like structured picture surface, which in turn reflects the cross-shaped keys of the controller. The next picture, Parable of the Cave, on the other hand, shows a modern interpretation of the famous theory of the Greek philosopher Plato. Transferred to the video game, the young enthusiastic gamer and the thoughtful gamer represent the prisoners in Plato's cave. Captivated and carried away by the game, however, they consciously enter a virtual world that feels real in many sensory impressions while playing and replaces the real world.

Finally, the third canvas LAN party was created under the impression of a visit from the Dreamhack in Leipzig. The neon colors and themes seen there can also be found in the colorful works on paper. Inspired by World of Warcraft, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario, they show emotional relationships between avatars and gamers.

Using purely artistic means of drawing and painting, Koubek succeeded in reproducing the digital worlds of video games. This distinguishes her from many artists in the art category of Game Art, whose works are predominantly drawn from the technology of video games and often created with the help of the computer. Rather, Koubek addresses the players themselves. Bold perspectives, diagonals, circling lines accompanied by strong brushstrokes give the works an unusual dynamic and expressive power.

The historical rooms of the Städtische Galerie Leerer Beutel with their 100 m² and mighty wooden beams, seem to be made for this presentation. They offer enough space for the monumental canvases and also perfectly underline the colorfulness of the works of art. In addition to the new game art project, which is being presented to the public here for the first time, the exhibition also includes the well-known cycles Faust and Agnes Bernauer as well as a large number of paintings dedicated to Regensburg's old town. New works also include the designs for the Goebel porcelain factory. The exhibition 'Dynamic Facets' is open until November 8, Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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