Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami
Gagosian Gallery
13 November 2010 - 15 January 2011
www.gagosian.com

By Emelie Ask

For the first time in Rome, Takashi Murakami is dedicated a solo-show at the Gagosian Gallery. The exhibition consists of only three of the Japanese artist’s works, the first of which is a painting situated in the immediate entrance to the gallery, Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, Blue and Death (2010). The other two works – Dragon in Clouds –Red Mutation (2010) and Dragon in Clouds–Indigo Blue (2010) - are situated in the main exhibition space upstairs and are the central works of the show, created site-specifically for the gallery. These monochromes, consisting of nine large canvases stretching 18 meters, each depicts an enormous dragon, whose symbolism comes into an interesting play in this show considering the strong contrasts of the artist’s Eastern background, and the site for which they were made; one of the leading modern Western galleries.

Murakami, one of the world’s most successful contemporary artists, was born in Tokyo in 1962, where he still lives and works in addition to his homes in New York and Los Angeles. His art bears influence of various movements and artists – though most evidently from pop art, and artists such as Andy Warhol - as well as other artistic fields such as the Japanese animation world of manga, in which Murakami has been an immensely important figure and one of the most successful creators throughout time. To this, many works in his oeuvre are witnesses of the profound influence on Murakami of his country’s turbulent history, such as the bombing of Hiroshima; for example, his characteristic skulls – as present in Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, Blue and Death in this show too – came out of the shapes of the massive smoke cloud as depicted by the artist in earlier works, such as Time Bokan – Blue from 2001. In addition to paintings, Murakami also works with mediums such as sculpture and computer, both of which are echoed in the show in the structures and certain formal qualities of the works.

On the visitor’s entering the main room for the first time, perhaps what is the most striking aspect – apart from the enormous size of the art works – is the presence of the loud colors of red and blue, and the profound contrast they account for. At the same time, the unavoidable immediate engagement with the subject matters signals to the viewer that the figures are one and the same, belonging together and trying to convey a message on a more profound dimension. And in fact, the monumental paintings also have a strong spiritual connotation; standing on the floor in between them, the visitor is almost literally enclosed in the world of Murakami’s creation. German thinker Arnheim’s theories on the creative process of art comes to mind, because at that same point in the midst of the paintings, the spiritual viewer participates in the moment of creation and hence in what Murakami calls ‘a prayer offering’ that he employed to ‘affirm his devotion to art’. The space itself – the circularity of the walls and the white cube atmosphere – adds to the notion of being embedded in another world, as there is no other element to disturb in this realm where the dragons are liberated from their Western symbolism, and instead transformed into a positive force. The works of art in this show is therefore a far cry from Murakami’s signature style in his typical pop art pieces with mixed palettes and flat, plastic appearances – in other words, the artist’s unusual but explicit intention with this show is fully graspable to the contemplating visitor.

Filippo Marignoli

"Vertigo"

Museum Carlo Bilotti

15 September-21 November 2010

www.museocarlobilotti.it

by Sara Pelliccia

Looking at Filippo Marignoli’s Vertigo at the Museum Carlo Bilotti in Rome is like taking a dip in the magic sea of the Hawaii - an explosion of blue and green colors suggesting endless esotic landscapes captures the viewer’s eye until that point provoking the sensation of vertigo. The originality of his canvases, which cannot be classified within a specific Contemporary art trend, recreates the unusual artist account of a talent outside the norm, who loved embarking on a nomadic adventure which took place between Rome, New York, Honolulu and Paris.

Divided in two sections, the exhibition opens with his later works, the innovative series “Vertical Landscapes”, Marignoli painted in the 70s/80s. This collection of acrylic paintings, noted for its rigidity and abstract notion of vertigo, is characterized by a unique perspective, which emerges effectively in the white walls of the museum. In them, the artist depicted wonderful islands fluctuating in a “verticalized” sea surface that lead the viewer’s gaze to the bottom of the canvases creating, in this way, a sense of falling abysmal nature of life. The incredible creativity and genius potential which marked the French period, was a direct consequence of his passionate marriage to a Hawaiian princess, Princess Kapiolani Kawanakoa who induced him to gather international experiences and draw inspiration from the innumerable natural landscapes which fascinated him. Ecran, located at the entrance of the show, inaugurates the series in which land and sea meet in the flatness of the horizon. Although the painting gives a sense of bewilderment due to the interplay of different graduations of blueness and greenness, the artist makes the canvas with a viewpoint, a thin line that travels the lenght of the surface, and in so doing, gives us a rope, a map, a lifeline to guide our journey in the fantastic world of the Hawaii and his native land, Umbria.

The show continues with the paintings of the so-called “Informal” period, an avant-garde art movement, which originated in Europe in the middle of the 20^th century. These are mostly canvases in a large format in which every rule of form and composition is denied in favor of the spontaneous act. A collection of “Untitled”, produced when he was in Rome, shows monochromatic weavings which articulate and loose themselves in multiple signs, emotive, yet sometimes dry, capable of suggesting nervous fragments of bridges, squares, and cities. Marignoni’s tendency to the Abstract painting becomes more evident in his productions of the 60s where the influence of American Expressionism is strong. In the Untitled of 1965 the blocks of colors are circumscribed and perceived as monochromatic masses which emphasize in an original manner the eternal dialectic color/space.

The last section of “Vertigo” can be interpreted as a sort of survey of his entire production. In the intimacy of the small upstairs room, drawings, sketches and paintings representing vertical and horizontal landscapes are located in the middle of two significant self-portraits which paradoxically open and close the artistic journey of Marignoli. The first one was produced in the early years and reveals the influence of Italian art in general, and in particular, of Modigliani. The second one is not only the last painting of the show, but also the last work of his artistic career. A sense of introspective dramaticism pervades this canvas, which seems to recall Bonnard’s divisionism; through his self-portrait, the old and sick artist observes like in a mirror the decadent image of himself who is about to challenge the last vertigo of his existence, death.

Vertigo is, basically, a inquiry into the world of natural landscape, which Marignoli explores through different styles and sensations. A mixture of gaiety joined with a sense of anguish makes his works pulsating entities, capable of expressing the inner dualism of the artist. The fascination of the geographical distances becomes the metaphor of his insatiable desire for freedom in art and in life, while his insistence on the use of vertical lines and geometrical patterns are symbols of the artist’s attempt to penetrate the depths of life and dominate his fears. Marignoli’s innate restlessness was, indeed, the driving force of his art and the means through which he managed to go beyond the early artistic experiences of the Informal period to create a totally new language which was expression of his passions, ideals, and “vertigos.”

Laboratorio Schifano

MACRO, Roma
26 October 2010 - 6 February 2011
http://en.macro.roma.museum/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/laboratorio_schifano

By Nicole Minatel
Few exhibitions are as appropriately named as the Laboratorio Schifano show currently on display at the MACRO in Rome. Composed by a motley assortment of pictures, postcards, drawings, polaroids, notes and even a video by the late Mario Schifano, the ‘laboratory’ set up in one of the museum’s exhibition rooms is best described as a voyage throughout the creative process of the extremely prolific Roman artist.
Curated by Massimo Barbero and Francesca Pola, the exhibition (which will run at the MACRO until February 6th, 2011) presents over two thousand works that now belong to the Archivio Mario Schifano, owned by the artist’s widow and son. Set up just as interestingly as the pictures on display themselves, the viewer who chooses to venture into the display space is confronted with a labyrinth of artistic outpour, composed of large glass plates that are covered in art from floor to ceiling. Pola describes this choice of presentation as a tribute to and continuation of Schifano’s creative flow, which was uninterrupted, quick and impatient. The maze culminates into two medium sized television sets that are placed on the floor and play video ‘collages’ by Schifano on a continuous loop, thus reinstating the artist’s practical, repetitive and high-speed approach to art making itself.
Contextualized within his own life, Schifano’s desire for velocity and change is not uncanny, but rather completely fitting. Born in Libya 1934, Schifano moved to Rome as a child and remained entangled in the social and artistic processes of the city until his death in 1998. Involved with art, filmmaking, rock music and drugs, he lived a life of excess that translates into the artistic output that began with paintings first exhibited in 1959. Working from Rome but exhibiting in galleries such as the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, Schifano and fellow Italians Tano Festa and Mimmo Rotella were placed among the ranks of Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Dine and Segal (Scobie). However, they stayed at a distance from the American Pop Art movement, ‘creating’ instead a European counterpart now known as the ‘Scuola Romana’. Frequently working in series, Schifano went on to develop a pattern of art making that, as described by Pola, involved creating, retouching and reworking every picture to a quasi-obsessive extent.
This exquisite mode of creation is blatantly evident in Laboratorio Schifano, where images that seem to have nothing in common make sense together simply because of their far more legitimate relationship with Schifano’s desires at the specific time and place in which he decided to put the ideas on paper. There is no common theme or imagery in the works – instead, they are an amalgamation of the ever-changing thoughts and ideas that go on in our minds. In this sense, the show is mentally and visually engaging, whole but also unfinished and most importantly, extremely unique. No other person on the planet could have created Schifano’s ‘laboratory’, not for the level of artistic skill but rather because it is so personal to this particular man’s innermost spirit, which the spectator is given permission to voyeuristically explore while walking through the glass corridors.
Thus, it is easy for an inflexible viewer to dismiss this collection of thoughts and tag it as excessive and overflowing with unimportant information. But it is also impossible for this same viewer to deny that it is this plethora of banal information presented by the artist that makes one feel as if one knew Schifano in person and has been given access to his private assortment of self-referential yet universally comprehensible ideas. And even if these ideas are not in synchrony with one’s own, they are still a beautiful, engaging and thought-provoking way to look at a world that manages to be colorful and black and white, optimistic and pessimistic, stunning and ugly, and sane and insane all at the same time.

Scobie, Ilka. "A La Schifano." Artnet Magazine. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. .

Sale Interne
Flavio Favelli
S.A.L.E.S. Gallery
October 12 - November 27 2010
www.galleriasales.it

by Clara Giannini

Flavio Favelli is an Italian artist born in 1967 in Florence. Today he lives and works in Savigno, in the province of Bologna. He exhibits in many spaces in Italy and abroad, and his current show is in Rome in S.A.L.E.S. Gallery.

Sale Interne is an exhibition expressly designed for the spaces of the gallery in which Favelli follows a path that is difficult to catch immediately. The idea that guided the artist in creating these new works is a concept related to memory. In fact, every object of the exhibition has its own history that recalls the history of many other similar objects. This because Favelli took those items that everyone met at least once in his life, and in this way his art can draw from people’s memories and arouse familiarity and nostalgia.

The exhibition can be related in part to the word “ambiguity”, too, as can be seen from the first room of the gallery. Here, the artist built a room inside the space of the S.A.L.E.S. edifice, creating an environment in which the visitor can enter and find himself completely immersed in. The dark color of the wood and the old walls of boiserie that surround the spectator transmit a sense of sacredness of churches or give the sensation of being in a pub. This because Favelli wants to recall in the visitor’s mind a place already met sometime or somewhere but that it is difficult to identify. The wall in front of the entrance, where a neon light and a photograph of a part of the Piazza Navona fountain (the only source of light and color) occupy the centre of the space, complete this installation. In the middle of the floor of this work, the artist reproduced architectural plan drawings of Italian historical churches that assume the aspect of floral decorations. They are represented in two contrasting colors (white and brown) and form concentric circles whose centre is a game of overlapping plans and colors.

Just outside this huge installation, there is another work created through neon lights that form the contours of four playing cards (the aces of the deck). The neon has been installed on a dark mirror surface that reflects the two colors of the light which creates the work of art. This installation has the familiar flavor of something already seen and lived, which is a typical characteristic of Favelli and of this exhibition.

However, the artist’s message and intention is probably more transmitted by the last room of the S.A.L.E.S. gallery. In fact, this is a small space that gives the impression of being in an old living room (the grandmother’s or the uncle’s one) full of paintings on the walls and carpets on the floor. Prints of the churches plans, foulards of the Martini industry that advertises some of the products, stamps of the old Italian money that create a painting through the gradation of tints or recreate the Italian flag through their colors are hung on the walls. All these pieces of life build a world easy to recognize that arouses intimate feelings, a state of peace and nostalgia.

These emotions are due not only to the environment Favelli designs, but also to the components utilized. What does not appear at first glance, in fact, is the use of recycled materials. Flavio Favelli loves recycling articles from a person’s individual experience: at the beginning, he used objects taken from his old house, then from a second-hand dealer. These objects, in fact, have their own identity and memory, and for this reason they transmit to the visitor a sensation of déjà-vu and provoke profound emotional participation. The identity of these items has been deeply transformed by the artist, but their memory comes out from them and invades the entire structure of the gallery rendering it a comfortable and intimate space.

Sale Interne seems the summary of a life, the artist’s life, but it also seems to contain the essence of the lives of many other people. Places and objects met and lived fill the space of the S.A.L.E.S. gallery with sentiments and emotions that are part of a personal history and, at the same time, part of a collective one. Private and common here become one, and the show expresses the mixture of individual and global that represent an entire community, and that this entire community can share and understand.

Kiki Smith

Scuplture and Drawings

Galleria Lorcan O’Neill

Thursday, September 23- Thursday, November 25, 2010

http://www.lorcanoneill.com/site/index.php

By Monet McCord

Walking along Via della Lungara towards Castel S. Angelo most people notice the large gold statue sitting in a room amongst all the other local stores and businesses that are on this road.  However, it is not clear who the artist is or that it is apart of a gallery, that gallery being Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, which is currently showing the artwork of Kiki Smith and being curated by Laurita Parrilla.

Kiki Smith lives and works in New York.  For more than twenty years she has reflected on human existence, the body, and creativity.  She creates profound and meditative works which explore the rites of passage in a woman’s life.  The exhibition presents a variety of work by the artist, including large sculpture, drawings, porcelain pieces, and jewelry.

The huge bronze-seated sculpture seen on Via della Lungara through the glass window is titled Annunciation with the large drawing Circumstance directly behind it.  The sex of the statue is somewhat obscured but one can immediately connect it to Buddhism, due to its hand gesture, the Abhaya Mudra which signifies a gesture of reassurance, blessing, and protection.  This connection only makes sense after going into the gallery and learning that the artist takes inspiration from mythology, religion, anatomy, and fairy tales.

As the spectator enters the gallery they are approached by another large sculpture to their immediate right.  It is a statue of a female figure holding flowers in one hand and waving with the other, it is as if she is welcoming you into the gallery; she is titled Singer.  Walking through the small gallery the viewer will experience multiple mediums of art, sculpture, drawings, installations, and even jewelry. All the works are connected with the home, nature, birds, or flowers.  There is a section of the gallery that appears to be a segment of a home removed and placed there.  It is a drawing of a window with a bird flying and a vase of flowers on the window seal. In front of this drawing is a chair installation with flowers sitting on it. The chair makes the drawing come to life as if you are really in a home. The feeling of life and freedom is lingering through the gallery, as the artist position gold birds throughout the space.  There is one case where the concept of freedom itself is actually questioned, where a crisscrossing network of lines traps a bird.  This bird is seen hovering over the three smaller drawings that adore the back wall of the gallery. 

On the way out of the gallery the spectator is then again approached by another large sculpture to their right, which also has her hand in the waving gesture, but this time maybe saying goodbye to the viewer.  After viewing the organization of the gallery I wondered if the artist had chosen the layout of the exhibition, and according to the gallerist, she did. It is evident that she wanted to feel like the viewer was entering the home.  There was the greeter at the door, the head woman sitting directly in the center and head of the gallery, typical images that are associated with the household on both sides of the walls, one being the image of the window and the other of a mother and her daughter sitting on a bed, and the other statue to show you to the door.

  

This exhibition is the first that I have seen that is welcoming in its artwork and its organization of space, although the artworks are rather large they do not overpower the viewer into being belittled, they do however uplift and empower the spectator. I think her message about women’s life is apparent in the theme of her art pieces; the topic of the role of the woman and their responsibilities in the home is an ancient theme but Kiki Smith addresses it in a modern way with the use of various mediums.  As seen with other contemporary artist it is very common to mix more than one medium together in a single artwork.  There is no longer just the two simple categories of sculpture and painting, there are installations, drawings on paper, and in this exhibition there is even jewelry.