Tropicana

Art Safari launches Collectors’ Choice, a new series of exhibitions dedicated to private collections that deserve to be seen by everyone. The series debuts with Tropicana, a spectacular journey into the space between the Tropics, which has captivated human imagination for centuries. Ancestral art meets modern and contemporary visions.

Collector Alex Rus joins the Art Safari community, offering the public the privilege of discovering a remarkable selection of works from his RUS Collection. This initiative is also an invitation to other collectors passionate about contemporary art to join in, transforming Art Safari into the place where private collections come to life and enter into dialogue with a wider audience.

The space between the Tropics has long captivated human imagination.

Perhaps it is the call of ancient myths, the lush abundance of nature, or the enduring resilience of cultures that have flourished for centuries across Latin America, Central Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and the Papuan islands.

Here, art is not bound by time. Tribal artworks, created many decades ago, often carry a freshness so immediate that one could mistake them for modern creations. Meanwhile, contemporary artworks from these regions do not simply honor tradition – they reawaken it, transforming heritage into a living force that speaks directly to the present, imbued by the complex history these societies experienced in their colonial and post-colonial recent past.

The “power objects” of ancestral tropical communities – ancestor figures, amulets, weapons, ritual costumes, even utilitarian objects – once lit the imagination of Surrealists and Cubists, shaping the very course of early modern art. In our own time, the art of the Tropics has reemerged at the forefront, being celebrated by leading museums and galleries, and securing a central spot on the world stage at the Venice Biennale.

This exhibition brings together both types of tropical art. On one side, tribal art, created by anonymous artists who often acted as spiritual figures, imbuing their creations with protective power or confrontational intentions. On the other side, modern and contemporary art, created by artists originating from the Tropics who channeled their heritage into personal responses to the speed, tension, and dilemmas of today’s world.

From the ritual site to the contemporary studio, tropical art has mainly aimed at projection of identity. One paramount criterion still holds, namely that only art of high aesthetic quality can become “powerful” and “sacred”, as a necessary but not sufficient condition – and therefore external and internal qualities become inextricably linked.

Even though the music of our complex age often sounds dissonant, the beat of the Tropics remains strong, persistent and alive.