Since the beginning of time, humans have had the urge to express themselves through art. Maybe those expressions were primitive but still they captured our attention because of their honesty and raw beauty. With the development of civilization, art has become more sophisticated, intellectual and technical but at times soulless.

With the exhibition Primitive – Prime Time, Anna Zorina Gallery intends to focus on primal artistic emotions. The Gallery has purposely chosen art with no technological or electronic background. The exhibition celebrates the intuitive origins of creativity.

Primitive – Prime Time is a collection of visceral works by an international group of four artists. Spanning a range of media, the works share a spontaneous manifestation of life evident in nuances of shape, color and line. The articulation in instinctive manner challenges notions of order to offer unexpected transformations that represent the primitive ‘other’ in a complex contemporary world.

Alexander Kaletski (b. 1946) escaped from Soviet Russia in 1975 to evade the stifling influence that strict bureaucracy had on his artistic passion. His unconventional engagement with disposable materials and burlap illustrates his insatiable desire to show the inherent beauty in commonplace items.

With tongue-in-cheek humor, Micha Patiniott (b. 1972, The Netherlands) uninhibitedly documents a lucid state through the eye of untethered perception. His subtle palette and loose brushwork capture the transience of these illusory moments with playful and poetic curiosity.

Early in his career sculptor Hans Scheib (b. 1949, Germany) deeply desired to work with bronze. Unable to obtain such material in East Berlin, he turned to utilizing discarded wooden beams from demolished homes. With a chainsaw, chisel and paint brush he revitalized these remnants. His figures elude delineation and instead serve as vehicles for expressing mood, essence and character. Hans has since been able to make his mark on bronze, generating the same vivacious work.

Jay Stuckey (b. 1968, USA) creates narratives within cartoon-like worlds that are humorous, and bewildering. The layering of collage elements, including photographs and handwritten notes, infuses the dream-like paintings with features of real life. The raw primal emotions with the anarchic scenes are rendered in a childlike style of bright colors and a violent, rhythmic flurry of brush strokes.