ABOUT SCULPTURE #2

Galerie Rolando Anselmi is delighted to present the second chapter of the on-going project: About Sculpture. This project will evolve throughout the year, with four group exhibitions exploring contemporary sculpture. The artistic relevance of this medium will be examined through the work of 24 international artists, born between the 60s and the 80s. The artists included in the exhibitions, ranging from established to emerging, are invited to present one piece, trying to expand and go beyond conventional debates and notions of sculpture. Their works reflect a multi-layered and contradictory image of common media definitions through the implementation of different strategies of investigation and aesthetic parameters. This on-going project will be crowned by the publication of a comprehensive catalogue at the end of the year. In this second occasion we are excited to host works by Gianni Caravaggio, Christiane Löhr, Johannes Wald, Piotr ?akomy, Bo Christian Larsson and artist duo Astali/Peirce. The shows aim to build a narrative in space, investigating the relationship between space and material in an effort to exhibit a heterogeneous spectrum of possibilities. In the main exhibition room Christiane Löhr proposes a site-specific installation: with strands of horsehair pulled through the eyes of needles, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, Löhr’s Haarsäule (Hair Column), 2014, stretches into the room and combines the vision of an architectural construction with an almost intangible presence. On the floor, in the center of the room, we come across, Sotto la superficie, la verità della concretezza (Alpi) 2013, by Gianni Caravaggio. The artist produces a poetic act within the paradox of surface/appearance and depth/concreteness, presenting a wedge of Bardiglio marble tearing an ink jet print photograph of the sky that the artist took some times ago while crossing the Alps. The work created by Johannes Wald embodies the concept of sculpture, and is a reference to the technique of bronze casting: three bars, each emerging from a cone shape and cast out of bronze, built Verlangen, Abschwur und Wiederkehr in Bronze gegossen (2011) The bars and cone shapes are casts from channels and cones usually used to lead the liquid metal into the foundry mould. Wald depicts a moment of uncertainty, which precedes each form, evoking in the title an elusive quality that is kept in a possible becoming of the sculpture. On the other hand Silver-grey Styrofoam and light bulbs are the basic materials for Piotr ?akomy’s work Untitled (Observing Self), 2013. On a sofa-like structure, two bulbs of different kinds are mounted and flash on and off. This alternation of light and shadow builds an automatic and literally programmed dialogue, which is at the same time intimate and poetic. In this work one can identify most of the principal subjects addressed by the artist: meeting, communication effort, energy flow and isolation. Artist duo Tolia Astali and Dylan Peirce attracted by intense experimentation on material will exhibit in this occasion S X IV IV, 2010, a bizarre structure made of cardboard, polyester and lead. The structure has large dimensions but it seems very fragile and precarious, being in a not known balance. In We are all chained to the world, 2009, Swedish artist Bo Christian Larsson realizes a recognizable and everyday item, such as shoes, with iron chains. Larsson’s installation has a strong presence, able to drag the spectator in an introspective and dreamy atmosphere, which leaves space to investigate the inner vision of the individual and its helpless confrontation to external circumstances and internal resistances.