16th November 2014 – 18th December 2014
Opening: Sunday 16th November, 11.30 a.m.
Featuring Filippo Centenari and Maria Elisabetta Novello’s works, BE LOST IN THE ETHER will open at Galleria Paola Verrengia on Sunday, November 16th, at 11.30 a.m.
Although being different when choosing techniques and materials, these two artists share a common interests in an experimental approach aimed at recalling history and resuscitating the past. By making a smart use of technology (computers, photography and neons), Centenari works towards subverting the structural rationale of common objects, such as fishing nets, mirrors and musical instruments, in order to create novel shapes and new spaces soaked with the cold neon light.
Obtained after burning woods, the ash is the material selected by Novello, out of these last remaining of substances she generates shapes, new presences, traces of memories.
The artists designed an intriguing path for the Gallery, the relationship established between their works is conveyed through contrasts between material and immaterial – ashes versus lights – suggesting the perception of new interactions and different balances.
The light is the peculiar aspect of Filippo Centenari’s works (1978) . In fact, the artist makes an extensive use of neon lights and video projections. Amongst the works featured in this exhibition, we would like to mention Domande in Sospeso (Unanswered questions), a great installation composed of a fishing net and 24 neon lights shaped as question marks. On the floor visitors will see “concentric circles vivifying the sculpture[...] it’s a living and reflecting fishing net where suspensions and interludes become once again inspirational elements for meditation and ascesis”(F. Centenari)
By using ashes, Maria Elisabetta Novello (1974) aims at performing “a ritual practice – both precise and idealized – an act of remembrance”(M. Cavallarin), re-declining a bygone age. Thanks to this ephemeral element which detains symbolic values, she shapes her Paesaggi (Landscapes), in which we might contemplate either nocturnal images – notable for their meteors clouds crossing the sky – or refined geometric embroideries perfectly drawn. The works she has conceived for BE LOST IN THE ETHER, exalt and accentuate “the substantial unresolved physical nature of ashes, ever- changing powder”, an essential characteristic capable of transforming objects.
Amongst Filippo Centenari’s (Cremona, 1978) exhibitions, we would like to mention: “Art Jungle”, Venaria Reale, Turin (2013); “Polaroid Easy Art”, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo Da Vinci, Milan (2012); “Senza Rete”, Loft Project ETAGI, St. Petersbourg (2011); “Under Italian Eyes”, Mahmoud Khalil Museum, El Cairo; “Domande In Sospeso”, Museo Diocesano, Milan (2010); “The Solo Project”, Galleria Paola Verrengia, Basel; “Premio Guglielmo Marconi dal 1988 al 2009”, Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna; “Filiberto Menna: La linea analitica dell’arte contemporanea”, Complesso Monumentale di S. Sofia, Salerno (2009); “Qui Vive?”, International Biennial, Moscow; “Energie sottili della materia”, China National Academy of Painting, Beijing (2008); “Scambio III/ Een uitwisseling van kunst III,” Rem Gallery , Jabeek, Maastricht; “Cowparade”, Milan (2007); “L’occhio Iperteso”, Premio Internazionale Guglielmo Marconi per l’arte elettronica, Bologna (2005); “Radiance & Resonance / Signals of time”, DIAF, Dashanzi International Art Festival of Bejing, Beijing (2004).
Amongst Maria Elisabetta Novello’s (Vicenza, 1974) exhibitions we would like to mention: “Data on Imperfection”, Factory-Art, Berlin, curated by Martina Cavallarin; “Andata e ricordo. Souvenir de voyage”, Mart, Rovereto. (2013); “WOP works on paper”, FABBRI.c.a. contemporary art, Milan; “Liridi”, Galleria Fumagalli, Bergamo, curated by Annamaria Maggi (2012); “Round the clock”, Collateral event – 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Spazio Thetis, curated by Martina Cavallarin (2011); “Disegnar sui muri”, Fabbrica del vapore, Milan, curated by Marina Mojana; “The Goldberg’s Variations 2”, Mya Lurgo Gallery, Lugano, curated by Martina Cavallarin (2010); “Il più profondo è la pelle”, MUD Art Foundation, Milan (2009); “I labirinti della bellezza”, Museo Michetti, Francavilla al mare Chieti (2008); “Maninfesto”, Villa Manin Passariano Codroipo, Udine, curated Sarah Cosulich Canarutto (2007); “Retrovie Avanguardia, 1918-2000 dalle trincee all’Europa 2005”, Forte Kluze di Bovec, SLO, curated by Museo Casabianca di Malo and region of Upper Austria and Linz (2005).
