To think of one’s death and to make art of that thought has lead to both romantic and existentialist ends. But to think of one’s direct participation in death is to dismiss all ideas of personal success or failure and to replace life, hope, and strength with passivity and silence. Sergio Ragalzi’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures are marked by a marked absence of vitality and a profound negation of life itself. Through this absence and negation Ragalzi displays a notion of loss that moves beyond a romantic conception of death and into a more terrifying contemplation of disaster.

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