Kiwi Artist in final ‘Showdown’

Click to enlarge

Press Release

Kiwi Artist in final ‘Showdown’

Paintings by Charles Olsen and Vania Comoretti go ‘head to head’ this week in the final of the international art competition, the Saatchi Showdown. Of the twelve finalists their works received the highest scores during a week of intensive voting which saw the Saatchi website logging over 50,000,000 hits per day. The winning painting will be shown in the new Saatchi Gallery in London, due to open in the refurbished Duke of York's Headquarters, Chelsea, in November 2007.

New Zealand artist, Charles Olsen (b. Nelson, 1969), has lived in Spain for 4 years and has recently focussed on portraits in oils and watercolours. His painting ‘La Sundari’ painted in oil on three old wooden window-shutters is inspired by his passion for flamenco. The face of a flamenco dancer full of intense expression dominates the space. It is painted in a very loose understated manner with a very limited palette of dark greys blending into the sun-bleached pale-green of the shutters. The structure of the shutters provides an alluring contrast at once reaffirming the history of Madrid, of Spain, of flamenco, while at the same time dividing the face as though suggesting that at any moment the shutters could open and the moment will have been lost. It is the portrait of his close friend, Miryam Chachmany, from Holland, with whom he has been studying flamenco in the renowned academy ‘Amor de Dios’ in Madrid. ‘Miryam has an incredible energy and expression in her dancing and we’ve spent many hours rehearsing together with me accompanying her on the guitar. The painting is more a joint piece of work as it wouldn’t exist without her.’

How does Charles feel about reaching the final two? ‘It’s an amazing opportunity for me! My dream is to have a studio and to be able to paint full-time and to take my painting in new directions so hopefully this will help me along that road. Also, I’m pleased to be sharing the final with Vania. Her portraits are very beautiful with incredible detail. I’m sure they are more beautiful in reality as a small reproduction on a computer screen can never do justice to the actual painting.’

This week you can vote for the paintings by Charles Olsen and Vania Comoretti in the Saatchi Showdown until next Sunday 2nd of September online at:
www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/

Charles Olsen
www.myspace.com/charles_olsen
www.artfind.co.nz/artist/charolse

ENDS

© Scoop Media