Tabish Khan for the Londonist

March 27, 2020

 
 Tabish Khan’s article “How To See London's Top Exhibitions From Your Sofa” for The Londonist as London’s galleries shut down due to coronavirus, says of GalleriesNow:
 

“Every armchair art enthusiast should be checking out the GalleriesNow website, as it has a vast repository of virtual reality (VR) viewings of exhibitions. My pick of the London ones is this rather lovely fishy show at Mayfair gallery and photography specialists Hamiltons. Standing in among these dazzling Siamese fighting fish really does create the feeling of being in a fishbowl. Don't worry if you don't have a VR headset, it's very easy to view the show on your phone, tablet or desktop as well.”

 
view the exhibition here

and browse all the VR tours here

Gianfranco Zappettini – Luigi Mazzoleni – Jose Graci

March 4, 2020

[vc_row css=".vc_custom_1582202197662{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column][vc_single_image image="140971" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1583320770400{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1583321328771{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}"]courtesy Mazzoleni, London-Torino[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]Mazzoleni gallery directors Luigi Mazzoleni and Jose Graci talk to Gianfranco Zappettini about his exhibition “The Golden Age”, curated by Martin Holman and currently on show at Mazzoleni, London - take a virtual tour here

7 February to 11 April 2020[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css_animation="slideInUp" width="1/2"][vc_single_image image="141637" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1583320890728{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text]Zappettini in his studio, photo: Massimo V. Ronchi[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]Luigi Mazzoleni: When I saw the installation project for your exhibition, I thought: “Who knows what impact these new works will have on the London public?” When I saw the works installed, I realized that they would be a very strong attraction for Mayfair visitors. Can you tell us about your process for this exhibition?

Gianfranco Zappettini: I thought about this installation carefully by observing the beautiful space of your gallery. The dark grey colour seemed perfect as a background (almost the same colour as your logo!) for the works of the “Con-Centro” series, while for other works it was more appropriate to keep the walls white. I thought of the exhibition as a unique work, composed of many works, to be judged as a whole.

Jose Graci: This exhibition must surely be seen in person. Also, because the overview makes the symbolic meaning of the title more explicit: “The Golden Age”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]

“I thought of the exhibition as a unique work,
composed of many works,
to be judged as a whole”

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]GZ: The Golden Age of the title is not the hope for an era of material well-being. It is the reference to a future age in which the human being will again be in harmony with himself and with the world around him. I don't say it, the great Eastern sacred texts say it. Gold is a symbol of this harmony, of this perfection.

JG: An era in which man will find his inner centre?

GZ: That's right, that “golden mean” is necessary for one's own evolution. In medio stat virtus, the Romans said. The works of the “Con-Centro” series allude to this.

LM: There is a room in the exhibition which I never fail to step in at least once a day. It is the one dedicated to the “la Luce Prima” series. There are no lights aimed at the works, nor even lights that come from the works, but these Wood lamps inserted in the paintings. They do not illuminate directly, but by reflection: they cause objects in the room to be illuminated with reflected light. But the source of that light remains elusive, doesn’t it?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="136745" img_size="full" css_animation="slideInUp" css=".vc_custom_1583321222177{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text]Con-Centro no 28, 2019
courtesy Mazzoleni, London-Torino[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]GZ: You hit the spot perfectly. For this series I use Wood's lamp to symbolize the First Light, the Primordial Light, the one that generates the whole manifestation without being perceivable with human senses. It is the creative power that remains invisible, but that we can admire in its visible reflections.

JG: I understand what Luigi means, because I too often come into that room, to have a moment of peace. I find the sound you can hear also very soothing.

GZ: It is the vibration emitted by our planet in its perennial movement in the universe. It is another primordial element that I wanted to include in the installation. If you pay attention, the works look like a Buddhist or Sufi mantra. And it’s just like that: the Earth emits its mantra, and the Buddhist or Sufi mantra is the attempt to harmonize with the cosmos.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]

“the “Code of the Gods” alludes to a superhuman language, lost by men, bearer of very high knowledge”

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="slideInUp"][vc_column width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="136744" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1583325118631{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text]Con-Centro no 103, 2018
courtesy Mazzoleni, London-Torino[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="136748" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1583325130502{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text]Il codice degli dei no 35,
courtesy Mazzoleni, London-Torino[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css_animation="none"]JG: The other series on display all have very profound symbolic meanings, yet the public is attracted by the works, almost as if this density of meaning acted like a magnet. And then, the aesthetic value of the works is also part of its force of attraction.

GZ: Yes, gold among its properties also has the attractive power of its beauty and shine. But aesthetics is not the ultimate goal I aim for when I work. I aim for the rightness of a work, its intrinsic balance. If a work is right, then it is also beautiful, and its aesthetic potential comes accordingly.

LM: Returning to the main theme of the exhibition, the Golden Age, I was intrigued by the series of the “Code of the Gods”. In front of me I found these square plates, more or less large, on which lines of a text are written which is incomprehensible to the common spectator. I wondered if the row fragments painted in gold have a meaning to decipher?

GZ: I can't answer you and I'll tell you why. The “Code of the Gods” alludes to a superhuman language, lost by men, bearer of very high knowledge. Let us not forget that in all traditions mankind is able to speak with its Creator: it is able through the prophets - who have a direct dialogue with the superhuman - and it is in the primordial age that follows the Creation, that of the so-called “earthly paradise”, which is precisely that Golden Age you are talking about. The artist has always played the role of the “vate”, poet or prophet, one who opens doors, who sees where mankind still cannot see. He therefore knows higher languages, incomprehensible to the viewer. So, I can't tell you if these works reproduce an underlying text or symbolize a mysterious and ancestral language: it would be like candidly admitting to have superior knowledge, I prefer to leave the viewer with the question pending.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="slideInUp"][vc_column][vc_single_image image="140975" img_size="full" css_animation="none" css=".vc_custom_1583325224583{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1583325237705{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}"]courtesy Mazzoleni, London-Torino[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]JG: I believe that the volume published by Skira on the occasion of this exhibition also contributes to giving further value to all this. The texts by the curator Martin Holman, the professor of contemporary art Paola Valenti and Klaus Honnef give an appreciable contribution to the understanding of your work. What do you think?

GZ: I am convinced too. Martin understood perfectly the sense of the Golden Age, of my recent works. And for her text Paola Valenti found unpublished documents that I didn't even know, with patience like a real Carthusian.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="slideInUp"][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css_animation="none"]LM: Then with Klaus Honnef a particular story joins it. Could you explain why?

GZ: It is the history of Analytical Painting. In the seventies Klaus set the theoretical cornerstones of that movement, which linked the research of artists scattered across the continent. The goal was to re-found the language of painting, because after the advent of Arte Povera and Conceptual Art in the 1960s, many still wondered the reason for the existence of painting, a discipline that seemed anachronistic. To Honnef, myself and to a handful of colleagues in Europe, it seemed evident that in reality painting only needed a deep analysis of its basic grammatical elements: what is colour really, what is the support, what is the process ... There were important group exhibitions on this theme, between Italy, Germany, Holland and France, to which Claude Viallat, Gotthard Graubner, Gerhard Richter with his grey monochromes were also invited. It was a underestimated but useful work, because the conditions were created for the great return of figuration to Europe in the late seventies to be accepted without scepticism. Painting cannot die, precisely because it is intrinsic to humankind as is the word. That's why in the last sixty years of my life I have done nothing but paint. Paint and look for myself, and I found that the two coincide. Then we remained friends with Klaus even if at a distance: we didn't see each other in Kassel's “documenta 6” in 1977: he was the curator of the painting section, I was one of the invited artists. This exhibition in London was an opportunity for us to meet again 43 years on – that’s news, isn't it?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_single_image image="141695" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1583338531565{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1583338348446{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}"]Zappettini at work in his studio in 1975
courtesy Mazzoleni, London-Torino[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="none"]

Gianfranco Zappettini: The Golden Age is at Mazzoleni, London until 11 April 2020 - and you can take a virtual tour of the exhibition here[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

David Zink Yi talks to GalleriesNow
about art and inspiration

February 19, 2020

[vc_row css=".vc_custom_1582202197662{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column][vc_single_image image="139506" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1582202226425{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1582281499762{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}"]photo © David Zink Yi. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]To coincide with his exhibition “Rare Earths” at Hauser & Wirth Zürich, GalleriesNow talks to David Zink Yi about the inspiration behind these new ceramic works - pieces which engage with the multimedia artist’s direct and intuitive approach to his practice.

17 January to 29 February 2020

take a virtual tour of the exhibition

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css_animation="slideInUp" width="1/2"][vc_single_image image="140519" img_size="full" css=".vc_custom_1582202350578{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text]photo: Wolfgang Stahr[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]GalleriesNow: You’re known for more figurative work, can you tell us how you came to concentrate on abstract pieces for this exhibition?

David Zink Yi: For me, there is not much opposition between figuration and abstraction. In a good work of art, the two always stay ambivalent. In my experience, some works find their form through something abstract, like a rhythm, pattern, or a single note played by a trumpet player. Some other pieces have their origin in more figurative ideas or they emerge from a concrete story. This would be the case in my work untitled (Architeuthis), a giant ceramic squid. The fact that the reproduction of this strange and incredible form is made out of fired earth, oxides and minerals, I believe it is more than just a figurative approach. The form and material combined embrace both abstract and concrete elements.

In Rare Earths, my show at Hauser & Wirth Zürich, I decided to only work with ceramics. After building my own studio with an industrial size kiln and exploring many different ideas, I found myself working on pieces for this specific space. I wanted to show works without thinking too much about whether they are abstract or figurative – it was a natural development.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]

“It is a process of
losing control and
having to accept
the outcome”

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]GN: I’m interested in the play between your stoneware “scribbles” and the rectilinear gallery windows on which they hang, this clearly was done on purpose, what interests you about that interplay?

DZY: I have been working with Hauser & Wirth since 2004 and every time I looked at the gallery’s space in Zurich, I had often wondered what would make a good piece for this huge and beautiful window facade. I wanted to work against the predictable and transform the window aside from its purpose purely as a light source. The windows are frosted white with a strong black raster pattern, which make them look like graphs for technical sketches. That’s how I came to the idea to make a group of drawings that would interact with the window fronts, contra-posing playful lines out of stoneware with the rigid order of the window frames. Throughout the day, the window front also presents an entire palette of greys and yellows as the daylight shifts and the clouds pass by, I really enjoy this aspect.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="139507" img_size="400x533.33" css_animation="slideInUp" css=".vc_custom_1582202265328{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text]© David Zink Yi. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]GN: And there’s a similar counter-intuitive interplay between the sectional design of the freestanding stele and their finished appearance isn’t there?

DZY: The freestanding steles are inspired by recognized shapes and contours, some from an architectural context like skyscraper floor-plans and others from natural elements, such as a leaf from an oak tree. But through the behaviour of the material during the production process they become a kind of register of mistakes and chance – pieces with their own will. This willful behaviour of the material continues with the glazing process. They never get the appearance you would expect, or even the one you had planned. It is a process of losing control and having to accept the outcome.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="slideInUp"][vc_column][vc_single_image image="139510" img_size="full" css_animation="none" css=".vc_custom_1582207418031{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1582281561505{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}"]© David Zink Yi. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation="slideInUp"]GN: The glazed pieces in “All My Colours” are both beautiful, and completely process-led - where do they come from and do you think you will ever stop making variations on them?

DZY: These pieces were conceived as an experiment to search for new colours and different surfaces/glazes, each one is unique. Their form was developed in order to understand the behaviour of the glaze on an uneven shape, and at a certain point, I realised that these forms were very suggestive. They started as a pragmatic necessity to discover and create glazes myself through my own mixtures and to create an archive of these material possibilities. But it later became an artistic obsession for me. Gradually they revealed themselves as paintings too. They oscillate between paintings and objects, but also between methodic experiments and pieces open to all kinds of associations for the viewer. I doubt very much that I will stop making them as long as I keep working with ceramics. They are all my colours and I hope I never end searching for new or different ones.

Rare Earths is at Hauser & Wirth Zürich until 29 February 2020

take a virtual tour of the exhibition[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]