calendario eventi  :: 

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29/11/2007

Two exhibitions

Gagosian Gallery, London

Michael Craig-Martin

My work is simple and sophisticated at the same time….My picture of our society is that the things that unite us, at a very simple level, are the ordinary things we make to survive.
--Michael Craig-Martin

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Michael Craig-Martin, his first at Gagosian Gallery, London.

Throughout his career, Craig-Martin has explored the expressive and linguistic character of commonplace objects, evincing a dialogue between representation and reality in art. In the new paintings, outlines of everyday objects-- an umbrella, a light bulb, a drinking glass -- are drawn against a background of flat, vibrant colour. Over this he paints a single letter or combination of letters spelling commonplace words and phrases -- 'sex', 'no' or 'we', and so on. Such apparently random groupings draw attention to the relation between line and colour, word and image. Craig-Martin turns the everyday objects that recur throughout his work into pictogram-like images while creating narrative tension by juxtaposing and layering images and text.

A is for Umbrella comprises paintings that combine text and image, together with a series of computer monitor works, including two self-portraits and a large triptych. The computer monitor works engage the viewer to participate in the very construction of meaning. Although the image is fixed (a self-portrait or a collection of personal objects) the colours slowly and constantly change in infinite, never-to-be-repeated combinations. The effects of this are immediate and seductive, a sensory experience with a seemingly organic entity. Colour is used to distinguish one object from another, or to delineate one part of an object from another. Craig-Martin has always been concerned with how to make sense of the world, and the relation between objects and the spaces they inhabit. In these new works, despite the highly sophisticated software that he employs, he retains his intuitive artistic sincerity.

Michael Craig-Martin was born in Dublin in 1941 and educated in the United States. He studied at Yale University. He returned to Europe in the mid-1960s, becoming one of the key figures in the first generation of British conceptual artists. He was a professor at Goldsmith's College from 1974-1988 and 1994-2000, and a significant influence on the emerging British artists. He has recent retrospectives at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2006) and Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2006), and has permanent large-scale installations at Regents Place, London and The Laban Center, Greenwich, a collaboration with architects Herzog and DeMeuron.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany this exhibition.

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Alberto DiFabio

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Alberto DiFabio.

DiFabio's work merges the worlds of art and science with themes of biology, ecology and nature. This particular series of works explores structures of the human body and brain. Large-scale paintings pulsate with colourful organic shapes. The images are microscopic in their focus, implying biological diagrams, cellular structures, flora, eco systems, and pharmacological research. DiFabio creates abstract paintings by overlapping layers of images abstracted from scientific and medical references and his own reflections, enlarging the particulars and adding details. His works on paper continue his dedication to organic form, subject, and process.

Vortices has a dual meaning here, referring both to the spinning, turbulent flow that swirls strongly around a center, and to the early twentieth century British art group – which included Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, as well as the French sculptor Gaudier-Brzeska-- who set out to liberate Britain from the legacy of the past and obliterate all traces of the Victorian era by placing the machine age at the centre of their work. DiFabio observes how the human mind's capacity for information seems amplified due to the increasing means of communications that saturate our daily lives, and he invites us to reconsider the body in its most essential functions - posing questions about science and aesthetic, life and art.

Alberto DiFabio was born in Avezzano in 1966 and studied at the Academia delle Belle Arti, Rome. He has exhibited internationally, including the Beijing International Art Biennale (2005), Insomnia, Galleria Pack, Milan (2007) and Umberto Di Marino Arte Contemporanea, Napoli, Italy (2007). DiFabio lives and works in Rome.

A fully illustrated catalogue, with an essay by freelance art critic and writer, Alan Jones, will accompany this exhibition.

Image: Michael Craig-Martin

Opening reception: Friday, 30 November from 6 to 8pm

Gagosian Gallery
6-24 Britannia Street - London
Tue-Sat 10-6
Free admission

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