VOLTA Basel, Switzerland

This September, VOLTA Basel returns for its 16th edition as part of Art Basel Switzerland, where Abigail Ogilvy Gallery will present new artworks by Brooklyn-based artist Austin Eddy and San Diego-based artist Natalia Wróbel.

Both artists create a visual dialogue through hidden shapes, scaffolding, and figures. For Eddy, his process produces semi-representational works that convey emotions and energies of situations and individuals; the paintings have been broken down to the basic building blocks of each story or thing being portrayed. In Wróbel’s paintings, she references mindfulness philosophy, neural networks, elements from nature, particle cosmology, classical, jazz, and electronic music, ancient architecture, lyric poetry, and theories about the interconnectedness of the universe to elicit meditative abstractions. The question “what is painting” is at the forefront of their exploration and experimentation. Through the tools of abstraction and other historical painting languages, they break down qualitative aspects of painting and challenge the art historical canon.

Dates: September 20 – 26, 2021
Location: Elsässerstrasse 215, Basel, Switzerland

Austin Eddy was born in Boston, MA (USA) in 1986 and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Select recent exhibitions include: Althius Hofland Gallery, Amsterdam (2020), Galerie Sabine Knust, Munich (2020), Hermes Riders Lounge, Lyon, France (2019), Volta NYC (Plan B) (2019), Ampersand Gallery in Portland, OR (2018), David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX (2017), Dallas Art Fair (2017), Code Art Fair, Bendixen Contemporary Art. Copenhagen, DK. (2016), Agnes B. Gallerie, Paris, FR (2016), and Left Field Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2015). He recently completed the Liquitex International Residency in London, England (2018). Austin Eddy is the founder and curator of EDDYSROOM, a nomadic curatorial project launched in 2015.

Natalia Wróbel is an artist based in Encinitas, CA after spending years in Boston, Amsterdam, and New York City. Originally from La Jolla, CA, Wróbel studied Studio Art and Art History at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. She furthered her study at the Lorenzo de'Medici Institute in Florence and then the New York Studio School (NYSS). She received the NYSS Mercedes Matter Fellowship in 2012, and the Murray Art Prize in 2015. In 2017, Wrobel completed a painting residency at the Berlin Art Institute. Her work has been featured at international art fairs including Art Basel: Miami, Texas Contemporary, and Art SouthHampton, and has been an official selection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and MassArt Auction. Her paintings have been featured in publications in the US and Europe, in coursework at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and are included in public and private collections around the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia.