In collaboration with Rosai Ugolini
Modern,
we're delighted to invite you to the
exhibition
Turi Simeti "Zero Gravity"
 |
| Image: Turi Simeti, Superficie blu con tondo, 1989, acrylic on shaped canvas, 24.2 x 77.3 in. |
Turi Simeti
"Zero Gravity"
Exhibition Dates: March 12 - May 28,
2016
Opening Reception: Friday, March 18, 6 -
8 pm
48 Orchard Street, New York, NY
Rosai Ugolini Modern is pleased to present
"Zero Gravity", a solo exhibition by Turi Simeti. Continuing its program of
showcasing preeminent Italian art, the gallery's third exhibition is dedicated
to a cornerstone of the European Minimalist movement. With works spanning
from the Sixties to the present, the show represents the first New York
retrospective of Simeti's monochromatic shaped canvases.
Since his earliest works, Simeti disturbed
the placid regularity of the canvas's surface through the application of
elements in relief that act as a support for three-dimensionality. His cohesive,
aesthetic-formal research brought him to the rigorous choice of monochromatism,
and to modulate both the surface and shape of the canvas. By inserting oval (and
later, circular) forms into the back of the canvas, Simeti succeeds in
articulating the plasticity of the work and determines its pictorial elements.
The artist renders visible a series of lights and shadows contained within the
intensity of color, a sign of a vivid presence on the canvas's flexed surface.
In one of the exhibition's historical pieces, Un ovale verde, executed
in 1967, a prominent oval accentuates the acrylic's light and objectifies the
shadows, transforming them from ephemeral projections.
Simeti orchestrates successions of
elliptical forms with impeccable modularity. Some of the forms emerge delicately
from the fullness of color, hinting at a myriad of tones, such as in the work
Un ovale nero from 1973, where the imperceptible oval shape tacitly
glides on a black surface. Others come forth from the canvas, expanding and
multiplying as in the 2013 piece Otto ovali bianchi; Here, the emerging
and plunging cadence of the ovals becomes a continuum of autonomous yet related
elements, each illuminating the other by way of their own
three-dimensionality. Elliptical geometries gravitate in Simeti's system of
composition: the color expands and the canvas embraces an ethereal concreteness.
Suspended, the forms attempt to liberate themselves from the space created by
their own presence. In the 1989 work Superficie blu con tondo, the
tactile evanescence of an imposing circular shape looms on the surface with a
tense and insoluble calm. By their very nature, the archetypical forms of the
circle and ellipse bring his works closer to a timeless dimension, beckoning
them towards the eternal.
Turi Simeti (Alcamo, Italy,
1929)
After passing his youth in Sicily, Simeti
moved to Rome at 30 years old.
There he frequented the studio of Alberto Burri,
whose influence would determine his first artistic productions composed of
multi-material works and combustions. Simeti's artistic language already defined
itself in the early 60's with monochromatic works, the characteristic element of
which was relief; In particular, the geometric form of the ellipse would become
a keystone of his work for decades to come. His public exhibition activity began
in 1963 at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence
the following year.
Simeti moved to Milan in 1965 and was
invited to participate in the historic group show, "Zero Avantgarde" mounted at
Lucio Fontana's studio along with Piero Manzoni, Günther Uecker, Yves Klein and
Yayoi Kusama, among others. The show then travelled to Galleria Il Punto, Turin
and Galleria Il Cavallino, Venice. Also in 1965, he realized his first solo show
at Galerie Wulfengasse, in Klagenfurt, Germany. Important solo and group
exhibitions would follow in major Italian galleries, as well as throughout
Europe, often alongside other icons of Italian art of the 60's such as Enrico
Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi, Dadamaino, and Paolo Scheggi. Beginning in 1980,
and for many years after, he divided his time between Milan and Rio de Janeiro,
thus bringing widespread recognition to his work in South America. In 2009,
Simeti was invited to exhibit at the 53rd Venice Biennale with a solo
show.
His works are present in prestigious museums
throughout the world including, MAM, Rio de Janeiro; Palazzo Reale, Milan;
Museion, Bolzano; Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen; Villa Croce, Genoa;
Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz; Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin; Kunsthalle, Bern;
Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserlautern; Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro; Galleria
Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome. Recent solo exhibitions include:
Tornabuoni Art, Paris; De Buck, New York; Stefan Hildebrandt, Saint Moritz;
CAMUSAC Museum, Cassino; Almine Rech, Brussels; Volker Diehl, Berlin, and Dep
Art, Milan. Simeti lives and works in Milan.
With special thanks to Scaramouche New York
for their curatorial collaboration.
212.228.2229
Scaramouche, New York, New
York, NY 10002
#scaramouche
#turisimeti
#arte
#newyork
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