Eric Mistretta
dal 15/1/2015 al 7/3/2015
Segnalato da
15/1/2015
Eric Mistretta
Scaramouche (new location), New York
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant. The artist presents a series of canvases constructed with multiple layers of stretched nylon pantyhose.
It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a
loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at its best when it is
a tantalizing vagueness. Robert Frost
Scaramouche is pleased to present Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Eric
Mistretta's first solo exhibition in New York. Mistretta finds a rich source
of inspiration in seemingly conflicting feelings such as optimism in the face
of despair, or sincerity undermined by naiveté. For Mistretta, comedy and
tragedy demand each other in a very dynamic way, a relationship the artist
seeks to articulate through paintings, sculptures and installations.
Mistretta
incorporates
language
and
recognizable
cultural
imagery
in
his
work, often fusing seemingly disparate elements to create visual hybrids that
elicit both a feeling of familiarity and a sense of absurdity. For instance
with Pale Fire, a series of canvases constructed with multiple layers of
stretched nylon pantyhose, Mistretta plays with the ambiguous role of the
undergarment, which conceals as much as exalts the body that it is meant tocover. In repurposing a woman's wardrobe staple, he also explores its rich
materiality to create mysterious textures and intricate linear patterns that
are at once elegant but also exude intimations of lust and violence.
In
other
instances,
the
artist
re-contextualizes
identifiable
images
to
infuse them with a new sensibility. In the painting Ninety Poems by Robert
Frost,
Mistretta's
homage
to
a
twentieth
century
author
who
tirelessly
avoided innovation by relying on the traditional forms of nineteenth century
poetry, the artist depicts the non-existent title of Frost's imagined volume
in the style of a 1990s Newport cigarette advertisement. These ads are most
remembered
for
enthusiasm,
In Ninety
conveying
which
Poems
by
a
heavily
culminated
Robert
in
Frost,
manufactured
the
"Alive
Mistretta
sense
with
deploys
of
excitement
pleasure!"
Newport's
and
campaign.
advertising
strategy to instill the painting with a sentiment deliberately at odds with
Frost's sobering, rural poetry.
Similarly, the works in Scenes From An Italian Restaurant create a romantic
slow-dance between the ordinary and the absurd. They conjure their own world
in which preconceived notions cannot be trusted and the viewer is left to
explore a very familiar, but ultimately strange place.
Eric Mistretta (b. 1985, Queens, NY) received his M.F.A. from the School of
Visual Arts (2012) and a Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts from SUNY New
Paltz (2007). Mistretta's work was featured in The Virgins Show curated by
Marilyn Minter, the inaugural exhibition of Massimiliano Gioni and Maurizio
Cattelan's gallery project Family Business, New York. His work was recently
exhibited at F_AIR Gallery, Florence, Italy and MonChéri, Brussels, Belgium.
Mistretta lives and works in New York.
Image: Eric Mistretta , Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Opening: Friday January 16, 6-8pm
Scaramouche
52 Orchard Street
Wed - Sat 12pm to 6pm, Sun 1pm to 6pm