Alberto Garutti

Alberto Garutti’s latest solo exhibition includes the work Untitled, 2014—a sequence of colors printed on nearly thirty-three feet of fabric, which is folded in a serpentine fashion over a series of five brass-colored metal rollers. The fabric scrolls over the mechanized bars slowly and inexorably every day of the exhibition. It is possible to first encounter an entire yellow monochrome square and then a portion of another square, perhaps blue, only for it to change into a light green as one exits the gallery, due to the work’s evolving structure.

The entire chromatic cycle takes twenty-four hours to complete its passage. It seems as though the colors can resonate with the moods of visitors or reverberate with weather conditions outside. Some colors cannot be perceived, since they become visible only at night. Other colors evoke experiences tied to abstract painting or activate memories of landscapes.

The gallery’s second location, in Agra, includes some of Garutti’s older works. On view is Cristallo Rosso (Red Crystal), 1995/2014, which is composed of an oversize iron structure that holds a large piece of red glass pitched against a wall. The piece relates back to an experience the artist had in a small apartment with windows that faced onto a courtyard opposite a red house. When the sun was out, the artist’s room would be bathed in a luminous pink. Here, the wall behind the work is casted in a pink shadow, creating an epiphany for the viewer.

Translated from Italian by Marguerite Shore.