Kinder than Solitude
Matija Čop | SunJing
Curated by Domenico de Chirico
Andrea Festa Fine Art is pleased to present Kinder than Solitude, a two-person exhibition curated by Domenico de Chirico, featuring new works by Matija Čop (Croatia, 1987) and SunJing (China, 1986). The exhibition will run from April 4 to May 13, 2024.
Kinder than Solitude reflects on the poetic possibilities of isolation. Inspired by the words of Kavafis and filtered through the aesthetic sensitivity of Hong Kong cinema, the show investigates the emotional, psychological, and spiritual conditions of modern solitude. The exhibition stages a visual dialogue between Čop’s bold, architectural sculptures and SunJing’s introspective, symbol-laden paintings—each offering a different approach to the human condition in quiet withdrawal.
Matija Čop’s structures—reminiscent of organic and geologic forms—emerge from a unique logic of construction and deconstruction. His process is both methodical and intuitive, rooted in transformation, repetition, and reinvention. His work reveals tension between the mechanical and the handmade, between chaos and clarity, inviting viewers into a sculptural world where material reflects mental states.
SunJing’s delicate and emotionally resonant paintings draw from traditional Asian aesthetics, cinema, and literature. Her characters exist in fictive, melancholic spaces, echoing universal experiences of loss, beauty, and fleeting emotion. The work is meditative and lush, invoking scenes that are at once personal and mythological.
Through contrasts of media, tone, and cultural language, Kinder than Solitude offers a vision of loneliness not as rupture, but as a mode of repair—a necessary space to rethink one’s inner and outer world. In doing so, the show becomes both a retreat and a mirror, allowing viewers to confront themselves in the silence of others.
