Author: Inna Rogatchi

Inna Rogatchi’s Dreaming Melody  work ( 2020) participates in the internationally curated SILENCE exhibition at the PH21 Gallery and Art Photography Centre in Budapest, Hungary. The exhibition presents over 50 works by the 45 artists from 14 countries, including the USA, Canada, the UK, Italy, Austria, Greece, Israel, Finland. Germany, Malta, Belgium, Australia.

The selection exhibited at the SILENCE show is exceptionally strong and interesting, it is a top-quality art overall. 

According to the exhibition curators, ‘Silence is always conceived against its opposites; sound, noise, loudness. Silence is strongly associated with loneliness and alienation, the unknown and disturbing landscape on the one hand, and the known tranquillity and peace on the other hand. Photographically, the contrast between deep darkness and dazzling light is also decisive. After natural or social catastrophes, everything falls silent; empty cities, villages, abandoned public transport and empty workplaces remind us of the transience and fragility of humankind. Silence is accompanied by quiet activities such as contemplation and meditation, which negate the very nature of action itself. Silence is also often present in still lifes, cityscapes, portraits, and many other photographic genres”.  

This concept just cannot be more matching Inna Rogatchi’s feelings and thoughts when choosing her work for the exhibition under the new and dramatic circumstances of the brutal, unprovoked war of Russia against Ukraine. Inna’s Dreaming Melody work ( 2020) is dedicated to the shocking situation of sudden war in Europe, unnecessary and tragic. 

Inna and The Rogatchi Foundation in partnership with the PH21 Gallery & Art Photography Centre have decided to run her and her work’s participation in the SILENCE exhibition as a part of their new international art charitable action Art for Ukraine. More detail about it can be read here.

In her Artist Statement, Inna Rogatchi said:

“My Dream Melody ( 2020) artwork is one of my favourite works. It is a quiet visual ‘symphony’ of memories. More tangible and not tangible at all. More expressive and vivid and almost invisible ones, as well. It is a silent song of over-exposition of one’s memories. It is an X-ray picture of one’s dreams, and a dialogue between one’s consciousness and subconsciousness. For me, the most interesting process in one’s life. 

This work was created in 2020 as a lyrical and philosophical work and supposed to be like that. Until now. In the year 2022, we all in Europe, with horror, are witnessing an awful war in Ukraine which has marked our lives for a long time ahead. 

In partnership with PH21 Gallery, I dedicate this work to the people of Ukraine, and I will donate my share of all proceeds from the sales of the limited edition of the exhibited work to the brave and honest journalists who are working on this war and who are risking their lives to tell us the awful, but absolutely necessary truth about this Mean War”.

The exhibition is on display in Budapest from April 7 through April 27, 2022. 

Inna Rogatchi’s Self-Portrait In Venetian Mirror ( 2020) is exhibited in Budapest, at the Personality: Contemporary Portraiture exhibition at the PH21 Gallery and Art Photography Centre. 

The exhibition is large and representative, it exhibits portraits by 60 artists from all over the world, with many American artists, as well as those from Mexico and Canada, and a lot of European artists as well, from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania. Among the artists from the other continents are those from Australia, African artists from Ghana and Madagascar.  

The works presented at the exhibition represent a wide spectrum of contemporary portraiture, from philosophical, poetic and enigmatic works such as the Self-Portrait in Venetian Mirror by Inna, to dynamic post-modern statement-like works. 

In their introduction to the exhibition, the PH21 curators mentioned the following: “Today we live in an exciting new era for portraiture. There has never been a time in human history when so many portraits and self-portraits were produced day after day as in the era of digital technologies. Photographers have responded to the cultural, social and technological changes by reinterpreting the age-old genre of portraiture, and it is always an exciting and rewarding task to organise an exhibition for some of the recent achievements in the field.”

In her Artist Statement, Inna Rogatchi explained her thoughts and ideas with regard to this work: It is not the genre in which I work a lot. The work is rather an exception, given its subject-matter. It would be correct to say that the work is rather a portrait of that special and magnificent old venetian mirror in which I took a self-shot trying to amalgame the moment of my presence next to it, next to the history that mirror presents to me. Several of my personal strong attachments have coincided in this work: my deep love for Italy, at every layer of its history, language and culture, my love and strong connection to Venice, my fascination with mirrors in general and venetian mirrors with all its  rich history, in particular. I do believe that some mirrors are able to keep the energy from what had been reflected by them, from the past. I spent some time in the art history research of venetian mirrors, also conducting that research at the place and working with the art and history experts specialising on the theme. So, for me, the venetian mirrors are ‘speaking’ objects which I am always fascinated with. I see and feel in them not only art objects, but also a very special reservoir of human memory. I love the mystery and promise of those mirrors. “ 

The exhibition is on display at the PH21 Gallery in Budapest from March 10th through April 2nd, 2022. 

Five of Inna Rogatchi’s artworks are featured at  the Abstract Mind 2022 international art exhibition at the CICA Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, in South Korea. 

Inna’s works at this exhibition represent the selection of  expressive abstractionism with powerful colour elements and with distinct forms. 

The selection is presented in the Abstract Mind 2022 introductory video:

According to the exhibition catalogue: 

“Inna’s five works exhibited at the Abstract Mind 2022 exhibition are parts of the artist’s various series: the series Movements of her Abstract Portfolio ( Moon Dance IV, Dialogue IV), another collection of abstract works 4×4 Senses ( String Octet in Colour), metaphorical art collections MAHLER ( Mahler. The First Symphony) and Mystic Stories ( Life in the High). 

In all these works, some essential tendencies for the artist can be seen: Inna’s attachment to the tradition of world culture and civilisations, the artist’s dialogue with music, her attachment to colour and inner dynamic which she believes is an essential element in many of her works. In these works, the artist’s statement is strong – as it is conveyed by the boldness of the colours, and dynamic, but subdued and laconic, as the artist believes that in the art, ‘the less is more’.

The work Mahler. The First Symphony is from Inna’s MAHLER series in her customary way of artistic dialogues with many towering figures of world’s culture. In this case, it is also a special dialogue, as Inna is related to the great Gustav Mahler. She is the third great-grand-niece of the famous composer. 

At the exhibition, 66 artworks by 33 artists are presented. Apart from Inna, five works are exhibited only by her husband Michael Rogatchi and one South Korean artist. Among those international artists, 13 of them are from South Korea, six are from the United States, with the rest are artists from Canada, Mexico, Argentina, India, Russia, Switzerland, Israel, Greece, Italy, Poland and Finland. Inna and her husband renowned artist Michael Rogatchi are the only representatives of Finland at the exhibition. 

CICA Museum is a well-known art institution which was established in the mid-1990s and started to operate from 2006 onward. The Museum started as the studio and gallery of the leading Korean contemporary sculptor Czong ho Kim who was studying, working and exhibiting also in New York, Los-Angeles and Geneva. From that starting point, the international dimension of the museum was started and developed. The Museum is well-known due to its numerous international projects with American, in particular, New York based museums and art institutions. 

Interior of the CICA Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, South Korea. (C) Courtesy: CICA Museum.

Abstract Mind 2022 is a customary CICA Museum international multidisciplinary exhibition in which the works in various genres of contemporary art render the main theme.  

In Inna Rogatchi’s art, the abstract genre has an important place. The artist has created and still is creating many works in her several collections of abstract art and likes to work in this direction.

Exterior of the CICA Museum complex, the Institute of Contemporary Art, South Korea. (C) Courtesy: CICA Museum.

Inna’s husband, artist Michael Rogatchi, also participates in the Abstract Mind 2022 exhibition with his works. It is another ‘joint show’ of the Rogatchi family, after their successful At the Same Time dual exhibition in Rome, Italy. 

The exhibition is on display  from February 23nd  till March 13th, 2022. More detail is on the CICA Museum site  – https://cicamuseum.com/abstract-mind-2022/

Inna Rogatchi’s Dilemma mini-series is presented at the Photographic Visions. Edition Winter 2022, a bi-annual exhibition at the prestigious PH21 Gallery & Art Photography Centre in Budapest.

According to the PH21 Gallery & Art Photography Centre, “Our aim is to celebrate the work of photographers whose portfolio is progressive and visionary, forwarding photography in the 21st century”.

During 2021, Inna Rogatchi has participated in several international curated exhibitions conducted by the PH21 Gallery and their partners in Spain and Italy in Budapest, Barcelona and Rome, including The Art of Photography ( Barcelona), The Shape of Things ( Rome), Significant Colour, -SCAPES ( Budapest).

In 2022, Inna continues her collaboration with this prestigious and highly professional European art institutions, participating in Dis/Harmony and Personality exhibitions, additionally to the Photographic Visions bi-annual show of top artists.