New East artists return to the state of pre-existence in London show

A new exhibition, Coated in Pre-existence, brings together multi-media works by Romanian and Slovakian artists at London’s The Cob Gallery to see what happens when we go back to the beginning of time and even earlier, to pre-existence.

The exhibition, which kicks off today, features Petra Feriancová from Bratislava, Marta Jakobovits from Santau, and Cătălin Petrişor from Craiova, alongside British artist Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Israeli-born Abraham Kritzman, each of whom have chosen respond to the theme in their own way, whether focusing on a specific historical event, religious pilgrimages or family archives.

Including a mix of printmaking, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, ceramic and video, Coated in Pre-existence fundamentally asks questions about the material act of creation and the moments that precede it, influenced by the work of philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Julia Kristeva.

Do objects have a memory? Is it possible to trace pre-existing desires to a finished artwork? What happens when those initial ideas are quashed? These are but some of the questions that are explored in the show, and its accompanying publication.

Curated by London-based writer and researcher Giulia Damiani, the exhibition forms the first group exhibition of Elizabeth Xi Bauer, a platform for art and criticism founded in 2015 to establish collaboration between artists, cultural experts, critics and collectors.

Coated in Pre-existence will launch tonight from 6pm and run until 11 September at The Cob Gallery, London. This Sunday 3 September, you can join the curator from 2.30pm for a gallery tour, followed by readings by Damiani and writers Jessie Bond and Hannah Newell.