picks January 08, 2018

Gerasimos Floratos

Gerasimos Floratos, who was born in New York City in 1986 and grew up in an apartment overlooking Times Square, self-assuredly fills the gallery’s space with large-scale paintings and three sculptures, all made with bold and decisive hues, and all vaguely reminiscent of street art. The paintings hint at figuration without coalescing into a linear narrative. Their emotive bodies are alter egos for Floratos, who develops his own personal language and pursues an internal investigation of sorts through the canvases. His research is protean, the bodies he depicts are in transit, and his visual

picks October 10, 2017

Alis/Filliol

The dark, silent space is dense with fog. Visitors move about circumspectly, their eyes adjusting to the darkness. Suddenly, a large sculpture of indefinite shape emerges, which seems to move and vibrate within the gray material. Then, a second shape appears, vibrating obliquely like the first. The latter form has two heads, seeming to whisper to each other, while the former, as it grows perceptible, looks acephalous or perhaps decapitated, its head resting at its feet. Both representations, simultaneously human and monstrous, gradually reveal themselves, their threatening stances directed not

picks August 14, 2017

Fausto Melotti and Thea Djordjadze

Fausto Melotti’s little theaters, some of his least known work, seem to represent instances when the artist felt most free in his practice. These miniature dioramas create safe spaces in which stories unfold, both lighthearted and profound, delimited by their architecture. Paesaggio Dimenticato (Forgotten Landscape), 1934, exists in dialogue with La Cattiveria (The Malice), 1978, as does Il diavolo che tenta gli intellettuali (The Devil That Tempts Intellectuals), 1939, with Il Gregge è fuggito (The Crowd Has Gone), 1984, forming extremely compelling mental exercises of sorts. They are constructed

picks July 13, 2017

Simon Fujiwara

Simon Fujiwara’s heaven is obviously clear and orderly. A labyrinth dominates the gallery, while background music lures viewers toward a secret chamber at the heart of the installation. As one traverses the space, lights are activated in recognition of bodies in motion. Passages within are punctuated by large paintings of Angela Merkel, a project titled “Masks (Merkel)” that Fujiwara has been working on since 2015. The series features sections of the chancellor’s face that the artist paints with the makeup products that Merkel actually uses. Working from a portrait of the political figure created

picks June 19, 2017

Pae White

The interstices that Pae White’s work occupies become monumental in this exhibition, where familiar objects warp, encouraging other associations. The show’s title declaims “Demimondaine,” but more than in just the nineteenth-century sense of women living at the fringes of affluent society, as participants without proper qualifications. This mondo di mezzo, or in-between world, is substantial in and of itself—as a choice, with a sidelong, insect-like gaze.

In the gallery’s courtyard, visitors confront abstract marble sculptures: explosions of gigantic popcorn with a familiarity that dilutes any

picks January 05, 2017

“Paranormal: Tony Oursler vs Gustavo Rol”

Like the Pied Piper, Tony Oursler leads viewers through an exhibition composed not only of his sculptures and paintings, but also archival material dedicated to the paranormal from his over-15,000-item collection, as well as writings and paintings by artist and psychic Gustavo Rol. He gives form to his knowledge of paranormal worlds drawn both from his recent stay in Turin (a city full of esoterica and Rol’s home) and from his family history: Oursler’s grandfather, Charles Fulton Oursler, was close friends with both Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In this exhibition, Rol is a key point

Michela Moro