Erwin Olaf, "Dawn- The Mother", Lambda Print, 2009

Currently on view at Carbon 12 Gallery is “Unbearable Lightness of Being”, a group show featuring the works of Katherine Bernhardt, Sara Rahbar, Rui Chafes, Erwin Olaf, Farzan Sadjadi, Michael Sailstorfer, Gil Heitor Cortesao, and Ralf Ziervogel. In accordance with the exhibition’s title, each work professes the “Es muss sein” (“It must be so!”) from Milan Kundera’s book the “Unbearable Lightness of Being” and thus refers to each artist as an author and a storyteller.

Erwin Olaf, "Dusk- The Mother", Lambda Print, 2009

The works capture intense and haunting subject matter such as Sara Rahbar’s hand-woven political narratives, Erwin Olaf’s mysterious compositions of the everyday, and Gil Heitor Cortesao’s portrayals of landscape in decay. In each artist’s work there exists a melancholic portrayal of beauty of the gentle fragility of life.

Gil Heitor Cortesao, "TBC" oil on plexiglass, 2010

The works are personal stories; they are mirrors into the artist’s acute observations of the delicateness of subjects on the edge. This is the unbearable lightness of being, the depiction of life’s multi-dimensions, cracks in the surface, and the constant longing for solidity.

Sarah Rahbar, "In the Still and Agitated Midnight, the Shining Stars View our Feasting", textiles, 2010

Gil Heitor Cortesao, "Double Bed", oil on plexiglass, 2010

The Unbearable Lightness of Being at Carbon 12 Gallery through January 10th, 2011

Saturday through Thursday 11:30 to 19:00

Al Quoz 1, Street 8, Al Serkal Avenue, Warehouse D37