Olivo Barbieri
dal 18/9/2013 al 1/11/2013
Segnalato da
18/9/2013
Olivo Barbieri
Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Alps - Geographies and People. Having previously completed a series of aerial photographs in the Dolomites range in northern Italy, Barbieri has embarked on a project documenting the largest range in Europe, and the relationship that extreme climbers have to the terrain.
Yancey Richardson is pleased to present
Alps – Geographies and People, the fifth
solo exhibition at the gallery by Italian
artist Olivo Barbieri, and the inaugural
exhibition in the galleryʼs new street-level
space at 525 W. 22nd street. Having
previously completed a series of aerial
photographs in the Dolomites range in
northern Italy, Barbieri has embarked on
a project documenting the largest range
in Europe, and the relationship that
extreme climbers have to the terrain. As
the artist describes:
“The subject of ʻAlps – Geographies and
Peopleʼ is how the mountain is perceived
from the climbersʼ point of view – its peaks and precipices, the mirages and hallucinations in its
geography. In these images, everything is true. The proportions and the forms are real. Even the
people and the position theyʼre in...those, too, are real.”
The word Alps derives from the French and Latin “alpes”, which at one time was thought to derive
from the Latin “albus” (white), in reference to the permanent snow on the peaks of the range.
Employing a technique he calls “solid color”, Barbieri makes erasures and selectively whites out
portions of the mountains, opening the possibility to define their fundamental forms in a concise
way. Conceptually similar to the selected focus of his site specific_ series, which transformed the
world into a model of itself, Barbieri here uses “solid color” to draw out the mountainʼs basic,
original form. Shot from a helicopter, the sublime and dizzying vantage is further enhanced by the
inclusion of climbers traversing rocks and chasms, seeking to discover a hidden truth in what
Barbieri describes as “blank maps”, a kind of spiritual space outside the realm of traceable
geography. Whereas his previous Dolomites series revealed the terrain and included people as a
near supplemental element denoting scale, Alps – Geographies and People moves the climbers
to the fore, presenting their extreme and dangerous traverse as a near hallucinogenic journey of
discovery among the most famous heights of Europeʼs largest peaks.
The exhibition will coincide with the release, this fall, by Aperture Press, of site specific_, a survey
of Barbieriʼs ten-year, ongoing project reimagining urban spaces across the globe. In addition to
his photographic work, Barbieri has also directed critically acclaimed films, such as site
specific_ROMA 04, site specific_SHANGHAI 04, and site specific_LAS VEGAS 05, which he has
exhibited at the MOMA, New York, the Tate Modern, London, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and
the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among other venues. His films have been featured in
the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. He has also exhibited his
photographs internationally at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, and
the International Center of Photography, New York. He has participated in the Venice Biennial
(1993, 1995, 1997, 2011, 2013), the Prague Biennial (2009) and the Seville Biennial (2006). Born
in 1954, Olivo Barbieri lives and works in Modena, Italy.
Image: Alps - Geographies and People (#2), 2012. 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print. Edition of 6.
For visuals, please contact Ian Rios at irios@yanceyrichardson.com
Opening Reception with the artist: Thursday, September 19, 2013, 6-8pm
Yancey Richardson
525 West 22nd Street New York NY 10011
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10AM-6PM