Francesco Barocco

In Francesco Barocco’s third solo exhibition at this gallery, three terracotta sculptures (all works untitled and 2014) evoke heads, and on each one the artist has added facial features, such as a nose and hair, in graphite. References to the history of art seem to be layered in these unstable compositions. Each piece is a “moment” and a comment on inexpressibility. Opposite these three sculptures are another four faces—collages on paper made with spray paint and pencil. Also on view are three etchings of more faces, and their high quality satisfies one’s expectations from Barocco.

More than before, this show expresses the tension that always pushes Barocco to create works that are open, transitory, occupying a sort of oblique place in art history where there is a succession of visions regarding the great masters from a past that no longer exists. The works in the show are inserted into site-specific architectural spaces that imply spatial and temporal dimensions beyond those of the gallery, nearly effectively turning the gallery space into a hypertext. These sculptures and works on paper do not necessarily interact with their surroundings, however, except within the microcosm they manage to create, resulting, indeed, in spatiotemporal levels that differ but coexist.

Translated from Italian by Marguerite Shore.