Raffaela Mariniello
dal 29/9/2005 al 1/1/2005
Segnalato da
29/9/2005
Raffaela Mariniello
Ffotogallery @ Turnerhouse, Penarth
The industrial and post-industrial urban landscape occupies a central role in the work of the artist. Her meticulously crafted photographs depict urban spaces and sites of industrial activity and, in particular, the seaports of various international cities. This exhibition includes newly commissioned works made in and around Cardiff, alongside recent work produced in Europe and North Africa.
In conjunction with Cardiff 2005 Celebrations, Ffotogallery Cardiff is proud to present an exhibition of new work by the celebrated photographer of the urban environment, Raffaela Mariniello. This exhibition, featuring new and previously unseen works, opens to the public this October.
The industrial and post-industrial urban landscape occupies a central role in the work of Italian artist, Raffaela Mariniello. Her meticulously crafted photographs depict urban spaces and sites of industrial activity and, in particular, the seaports of various international cities. This exhibition, curated by Aldo Rinaldi, and a major component of Cardiff's centenary celebrations in 2005, is the artist's first solo show in the UK, and includes newly commissioned works made in and around Cardiff, alongside recent work produced in Europe and North Africa.
Executed almost exclusively at night – using extended exposures – Mariniello's photographs are transformative: banal inner city housing blocks, factories and industrial architecture are elevated into images of extraordinary beauty and pathos. While this work is conscious of the authorship of Bernd and Hilla Becher and their objective recording of industrial architecture, Mariniello avoids a purely formalist form of observation and serial documentation in favour of a practice that is more classical and impressionistic in its approach. References to ancient architecture abound, surfacing in the crumbling cement frame of derelict buildings and ancient city walls, evoking the heroics of past civilisations which the artist infuses with a latent political subtext. Her photographs are testament to the various economic forces that converge to form spaces of social alienation and unease, signified by street signs, blank advertising hoardings, puddles of reflective water and the repetitive geometric style of social housing. Above all, Mariniello plays with our sense of perception, producing sublime works with a monochrome aesthetic that heightens our sense of distance and detachment from the relentless urban sprawl.
The artist was born in Naples in 1961, where she lives and works. Her first introduction to photography was working for a press photography agency in her early twenties. Her works are to be found in several international public and private collections and she is represented by Galleria Rubin, Milan and Studio Trisorio, Naples.
The exhibition is accompanied by a limited-edition hard-back monograph published by Ffotogallery in association with Cardiff 2005 and including an essay by the leading writer and critic Jon Bird. Gallery Talk with Jon Bird and Aldo Rinaldi on Saturday 1st October at 2.00pm.
Raffaela Mariniello was born in 1961 in Naples where she lives and works. She first worked with photography at the age of twenty, working for a press and photography agency. Her experience of working within a city that is always in the news gave her an attentive eye for the urban landscape. Her artistic exploration has always been gone side by side with commissions (photographic campaigns for public and private clients, and advertising photography).
Mariniello has completed a number of civic and Governmental large scale photographic projects. She is currently documenting the design and construction of the new subway system for Naples, a collaborative project produced by Future Systems architects and the artist Anish Kapoor. She also collaborated with the French artist, Daniel Buren on a project for the Public Water Supply Company in Italy.
Mariniello's work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris; the Maison Europeanne de la photographie, Paris; Centre Regional de la Photographie Nord Pasde- Calais, France; the Banca Commerciale di Milano and the Fondazione per L'Arte Contemporanea Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin.
Image: Cardiff 10 2005 100 x 120cm
Private view: 30th September, 2005; 6-9pm
Informations
Idea Generation: +44(020) 7428 4949
Rhiannon Pickles: rhiannon@ideageneration.co.uk
Claire Walsh: claire@ideageneration.co.uk
Ffotogallery @ Turnerhouse, Plymouth Road, Penarth, CF64 3DM
Opening Hours: Wednesday Sunday, 11am 5pm
Prices: Free